
---' 



A CHANGE 



OF 






OR 



ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE REMOVAL 



OF THE 



NATIONAL CAPITAL FROM WASHINGTON CITY 



TO THE 



SSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

( Illustrated with Maps . ) 



BY L. U. EEAYIS. 



Fair St. Louis, the future Capital of the United States, and of the Civilisation 
of the Western Continent. — James Parton. 

There is the East, and there is India. — Benton. 



ST. LOUIS : 

PUBLISHES AMD FOR SAL3 BY J. F. TORREY, BOOK ANB KEW9 DEALER. 

1869. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1365, 

BY L. IT. RE AVIS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court for the Eastern District 

of Missouri. 



SIISSOOTU DEMOCRAT PRLN'T. 



(J 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



The Old Government, Statement and Map of „, 9 

The New Republic, Statement and Map of 16 

The National Growth and Material Power of the Continent 20 
A Demand for a Change of the Seat of Government, and its 

Location at St. Louis 44 

The Geographical Argument 47 

The Population Argument ,,..... 49 

The Commercial Argument 53 

The Political Argument 61 

The Conclusive Argument 63 

Special and Local Considerations 165 

What Time , 169 



y 



NOTICE. 

While in Washing-ton City, last June and July, I talked with many 
persons in favor of the removal of the seat of government from that place 
to the Mississippi Valley. Before I left I was often met by citizens and 
visitors and questioned upon the subject. I made no disguise of my senti- 
ments, but gave as my firm conviction that the seat of government would 
be moved, and that, too, at an early day. Talking with the Hon. Horace 
Greeley, on one occasion, upon the subject, he said that there was not a 
heathen city in the world as corrupt as Washington City, and that he was 
in favor of the Capital going anywhere to get it away from there. He 
jokingly added that he would never forgive the rebels for not taking 
Washington. 

One day I was met by an old gentleman of ministerial proclivities, 
with whom I had conversed several times upon the subject. He said that 
many persons were making light of my project to move the Capital away 
from Washington; "but,! ' said he, "I told them to not deceive them- 
selves, that Noah preached one hundred and twenty years and the people 
would not believe him, but the flood did come as he had told them it, 
would." Then said the old gentleman to me, "You keep at work, for 
a gimlet-hole will after a while sink a ship." I answered him that I 
most certainly should contend for the removal of the seat of government 
to that locality which was destined to hold the balance of power in the 
.Republic. 

Senator Sumner also expressed his belief that the Capital would be 
moved West, and that its removal was only a question of time. 

One morning, while passing up Pennsylvania avenue, I was halted by 
an old gentleman who resides in Washington, and told that he under- 
stood I was there trying to move the Capital; I told him that he had 
been wrongly informed; that I was not there trying to move it, but was 
in favor of its being moved, and that I believed it would be moved. He 
asked me when; I told him in the course of five years. " Well." said he, 
I have lived here for thirty years, have studied the subject all over, and 
have never been able to see a single argument in favor of moving it." I 
said: "Sir, can you give me an argument to prove that the earth turns 
over?" He answered that he did not believe the earth did turn over; that 
it was all humbug to say that it did. I replied to him, saying that I could 
prove by astronomical argument that the earth did turn over, and that I 
could also give good reasons for the removal of the seat of government 
from Washington City to the Great West, but that I would not then give 
any arguments on either proposition. 

I herein propose to give the arguments as intelligibly as I can in favor 
of the removal of the seat of government; nor shall I, in the attempt to 



VI 

give good reasons in favor of the change, try to deceive any American citi- 
zen by false reasonings, nor selfishly advocate the preference of any one 
locality for that great national purpose to the prejudice of any other 
place, but contend for that which I believe to be just and honorable in all 
relations to the Republic and her people. 

In the preparation of these pages I do not claim by any means that I 
have exhausted the subject, but I have done the best I could with the 
material facts at my command. For my statistics I have consulted 
Government authorities and drawn freely from their pages. Especially 
am I indebted to the last Report (1867) of the Hon. Jos. S. Wilson, 
Commissioner of the General Land Office. This Report is no doubt the 
best that has ever come from that office. 

While I claim correctness for my general statement of facts, I leave the 
reader to determine upon the weight of the argument and the merit of 
the subject under consideration. 

Born and reared in the Valley of the Mississippi, and in a country and 
Government in extent and kind unequaled in the history of mankind, 
and sharing a little of that human nature which is keenly and instinctively 
alive to every step toward individual and national greatness, 1 cannot be 
otherwise than in favor of every change which our national progress 
demands. lam therefore committed to this work of removing the seat of 
government from the cradle of our national infancy to the Mississippi 
Valle\'. the destined home of our national greatness. 

While writing my pamphlet entitled ' 'The New Republic, ' ' I became 
fully satisfied that the special work of transferring the seat of empire 
from its present place to the Mississippi Valley would soon engage the 
attention of the greater portion of the American people, for the advanced 
column of civilization across the continent would demand the change as 
a fulfillment of the ' ' Prophetic Voices about America. ' ' 



THE WEST. 

" Let her not be despised ! American Orientals may dream that wisdom 
has taken up her perpetual abode on the shores of the Atlantic, and that 
the genii of Art, of Science, of Literature, have planted their rosy grot- 
toes on the sunny side of the Alleghanies ; but a thousand fancies never 
made one fact. Like the swaddled Hercules, the West has already put out 
her infant arms and strangled two political dragons that were coiling 
about her cradle; and as soon as she walks forth in the consciousness of 
matured strength she will make a greater fluttering among the harpies 
that prey upon her interests than did the club of the hero among the 
Stymphalian vultures. Ill-founded contempt is a blow that always 
rebounds. The Assyrians contemned the Persians while the Persians like 
muskrats were undermining the walls of Babylon. Haughty, learned, 
philosophic Greece, the conquerer of Xerxes, became a Turkish slave, and 



vn 

the fair daughters of Themistocles and Leonidas were bought and sold 
in the shambles of Smyrna. Rome despised the barbarians, and the bar- 
barians conquered Some. Csesar overrun Gaul with victorious legions, . 
and now Gaul holds a standing army in the city of the Ctesars. England 
would force America to drink Bohea, and America poured out. for Eng- 
land a cup of gunpowder tea, the taste of which she has not yet got out 
of her mouth. Thus it is, Arms and Arts in their onward progress have 
always pitched their tents nearer the setting sun; and the conquests of 
the one and the triumphs of the other have left their fruits to ripen and 
decay on the track. The very reli«s of the ancient empires are now to 
be dug out of the soil. Civilization, like the ostrieh in its flight, throws 
sand upon everything behind her; and before many cycles shall have 
completed their rounds sentimental pilgrims from the humming cities 
of the Pacific coast will be seen where Boston, Philadelphia, and New 
York now stand, viewing in moonlight contemplation, with the melan- 
choly owl* traces of the Athens, the Carthage, and the Babel of the 
Western hemisphere." — Horace Greeley. 



THE GEEAT FIELD OF THE WEST. 

"As the center of population and power is to be in the Mississippi Val- 
ley in the future, so must we look thither for the New Man who is to be 
the redeemer of our race and character. The Western man already shows 
larger, broader, and healthier development, spiritually speaking, than 
his brother of the East. He has never been cramped as yet by any of the 
restraining forms of social ecclesiasticism ; his mind, like his eye, ranges 
over large extents, and is not content to sit down with itself after having 
acquired a little power over its fellows. 

"As the Great West is bound to supply laws and men for the vast future 
of this continental country, so will it furnish the religion whose all- 
embracing forms are to invite the entire people into the simple secrets 
of its worship. ' ' — Banner of Light, Boston. 



THE MEN OF THE WEST. 

" One who has not visited the West knows little or nothing of the spirit 
of Western men. There is an all-pervading zeal, energy, ambition, push , 
go-ahead, seen nowhere else. The blood of a Western man courses 
more rapidly in his veins than in the Eastern man or in the European, 
and he thinks, talks, and acts on a larger scale. The Western farmer 
wastes more in a year than the Eastern farmer saves. He may lack refine- 
ment, but he has a generous heart for his friends and a deal of pluck 
for his enemies. His religion is less sectarian, less bigoted, and more 
broad, catholic, and truly christian." — American Phrenological Journal, 
Neio York. 



V1U 

' ' Now, sir, when I see this country, when I see its vastness and its 
almost illimitable extent; when I see the keen eye of capital and business 
fastened with steady, interested gaze upon the trade of the West, and all 
our Eastern cities in hot rivalry are reaching out their iron arms to secure 
our trade; when I see the railroads that are centering here in St. Louis; 
when I see' this city with 60,000 miles of railroad communication and 
100,000 miles of telegraphic communication; when I see that she stands at 
the head waters of navigation, extending to the north 3,000 miles and to 
the south 2,000 miles, and when I see that she stands in the center of the 
continent as it were; when I see the population moving to the West in 
vast numbers; when I see emigration rolling toward the Pacific, and all 
through these temperate climes I hear the tramp of the iron horse on his 
way to the Pacilic Ocean; when I see towns and villages springing up in 
every direction; when I see States forming into existence, until the city 
of St. Louis becomes the center as it were of a hundred Suites, the center 
of the population and the commerce of this country— when I see all this, 
sir, I feel convinced that the seat of empire is to come this side of the 
Alleghanies; and why may not St. Louis be the future capital of the 
United States of America?"— Extract from a speech of Senator Yates, of 
Illinois. 

' 'In whatever lands beyond the s ea the American citizen may sojourn, 
he carries with him the glowing sentiment of his country's greatness and 
capacity for mighty deeds. He carries with him its vast dimensions, as 
one would carry in his pocket a two-foot rule. He sometimes puts all 
the great rivers of Europe together between two banks, and measures 
against their united volume the giant Mississippi. He sketches the line 
of his country's length across the European continent, from the Pacilic 
to the Mediterranean, and from the straits of Dover to the Bosphorus, 
and bids the by-standers note the results of the comparison. Now and 
then he demonstiates to the patriotic Briton how the whole of England 
might be put in Lake Michigan, leaving ample room for navigation 
on either side. Is the Frenchman or German proud of his native land, 
he suggests that both France and Prussia might be set down in the single 
State of Texas, and still leave territory enough within its boundaries to 
make a kingdom as large as Belgium. ' ' — Elihu Burritt. 



THE SANGUINE. 

" If it were asked whose anticipations of what has been done to advance 
civilization for the past fifty years have come nearest the truth — those of the 
sanguine and hopeful, or those of the cautious and fearful— must it not be 
answered that no one of the former class had been sanguine and hopeful 
enough to anticipate the full measure of human progress since the open- 
ing of the present century? May it not be the most sanguine and hopeful 
only, who, in anticipation, can attain a due estimation or the measure of 
future change and improvement in the grand march of society and civili- 
zation westward over the continent?" — J. W. Scott. 




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THE OLD GOVERNMENT. 



But little more than the age of man, as assigned by the 
Psalmist, has passed away since the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution by our fathers, and the consequent creation of the 
infant government upon the Atlantic shore of the continent ; 
and yet, in contrast with the living facts of the present, what we 
are to-day in power and greatness, the story of our national 
birth and growth seems but a romance — a mystic tale, told of 
the dim and shadowy past. History opens to our view back 
at our colonial period the most remarkable civil epoch in the 
career of mankind. We see by its light a strange people in a 
strange land struggling in a wilderness to found a new nation — 
they "builded wiser than they knew." When we contemplate 
that period, and know the newness of its history, it almost 
seems as if Washington had lived in the present generation ; 
that Franklin, Jefferson, Paine, the Adamses, and Hamilton,, 
had just ceased contending for human liberty, and had just 
founded "out of feebly-connected federal associations one people 
— an American nation." Venerable fathers and government-- 
makers that they were, they have passed from mortal sight into 
everlasting history and heaven. 

That the argument may be made stronger in favor of the 
removal of the National Capital from its present place to the 
Mississippi Yalley, two maps of the country are submitted, with 
accompanying statements. 

The first map represents the territorial extent of the United 
States Government at the time of the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, and when the first Congress, sitting at New York,, 
ocated the seat of government at its present place. In addi- 
tion to the first map showing the territorial extent of the 
government at that period, it also shows the vast extent of wild 



If* CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

country 'which, has, since the incoming of the present century, 
been acquired by our government. 

The first map represents the Old Government. 

The second map represents the New Eepublic, or the terri- 
torial extent of the United States government as it now is, and 
in contrast with the Old Government we behold the growth of 
the American nation. 

Let us turn back in our history eighty years, and briefly con- 
sider, in the interest of the subject of this pamphlet, what tha 
Old Government was. 

The following act locating the seat of government at its 
present place was passed by the first Congress, July 16, 1790, 
while in session at New York : 



" An Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of 
the Government of the United States." — [1st Congress, Seas. 
II, Ch. 28, U. S. Statutes at Large. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That a district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to 
be located as hereafter directed on the River Potomac, at some 
place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connogo- 
chegue, be and the same is hereby accepted for the permanent 
seat of the Government of the United States : provided, never- 
theless, that the operation of the laws of the State within such 
district shall not be affected by this acceptance until the timft 
fixed for the removal of the government thereto, and until Con- 
gress shall othorwise by law provide. 

Sec 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the 
United States be authorized to appoint, and, by supplying vacan- 
cies happening from refusals to act or other causes, to keep 
in appointment as long as may be necessary, three commis- 
sioners, who, or any two of them, shall, under direction of the 
President, survey, and, by proper metes and bounds, define and 
limit a district of territory under the limitations above men- 
tioned; and the district so defined, limited, and located shall be 
deemed the district accepted by this act for the permanent seat 
of the Government of the United States. 

Sec 3. And be it [further] enacted, That the said commis- 
sioners, or any two of them, shall have power to purchase or 
accept such quantity of land on the eastern side of the said 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 11 

liver, within the said district, as the President shall deem proper 
for the use of the United States ; and, according to such plans as 
the President shall approve, the said commissioners, or any two 
of them, shall, prior to the first Monday in December, in the 
year one thousand eight hundred, provide suitable buildings for 
the accommodation of Congress and of the President, and for 
the public offices of the Government of the U&ited States. 

Sec. 4. And be it [further] enacted, That for defraying the 
expense of such purchases and buildings the President of the 
United States shall be authorized and requested to accept grants 
of money. 

Sec. 5. And be it [further] enacted, That prior to the first 
Monday in December next all offices attached to the seat of 
Government of the United States shall be removed to, and until 
the said first Monday in December, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred, shall remain at, the city of Philadelphia, in the 
State of Pennsylvania, at which place the session of Congress 
text ensuing the present shall be held. 

Sec. 6. And be it [further] enacted, That on the said first 
Monday in December, in the year one thousand eight hundred, 
the seat of the Government of the United States shall, by virtue 
of this act, be transferred to the district and place aforesaid, 
and all offices attached to the said seat of government shall ac- 
cordingly be removed thereto by their respective holders, and 
shall, after the said day, cease to be exercised elsewhere; and 
that the necessary expense of such, removal shall be defrayed 
out of the duties on imports and tonnage, of which a sufficient 
sum is hereby appropriated. 

Approved July 16, 1790. 

The following amendatory act was also passed by the first 
Congress, March 3, 1791, after the temporary removal of the 
seat of government to Philadelphia : 

w An Act to amend an act for establishing the temporary and 
permanent seat of the Government of the United States." 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much 
of the act entitled " An act for establishing the temporary and 
permanent seat of the Government of the United States " as 
requires that the whole of the district of territoiy, not exceed- 
ing ton miles square, to be located on the P.iver Potomac for the 
permanent seat of the Government of the United States, shall 



12 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch, be and is- 
hereby repealed, and that it shall be lawful for the President to 
make any part of the territory below the said limit and above 
the mouth of Hunting Creek a part of the said district, so as to- 
include a convenient part of the Eastern Branch and of the 
lands lying on the lower side thereof, and also the town of 
Alexandria; and the territory so to be included shall form a part 
of the district, not exceeding ten miles square, for the perma- 
nent seat of the Government of the United States, in like man- 
ner and to all intents and purposes as if the same had been 
within the purview of the above recited act : provided, that 
nothing herein contained shall authorize the erection of the pub- 
lic buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the River 
Potomac, as required by the aforesaid act. 

Approved March 3, 1791. 

At the time of the passage of these acts there was not even a 
village where Washington City now stands, and, as will be see". 
by the act of July 16, 1790, the seat of government was not to 
be removed to its present place for ten years after the passage 
of the act, that time being given to prepare suitable accommo- 
dations, buildings, etc., for the transaction of business. 

The following act, passed May 6, 1796, by the fourth Congress, 
while sitting at Philadelphia, provides for the public expense 
necessary to the permanent establishment of the seat of gov- 
ernment at Washington City : 

"An Act authorizing a loan for the use of the City of Washing- 
ton, in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes therein 
mentioned." 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That the commissioners under the act entitled "An act for estab- 
lishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of 
the United States," be and they are hereby authorized, under the 
direction of the President of the United States, to borrow, from 
time to time, such sum or sums of money as the said President 
shall direct, not exceeding three hundred thousand dollars in the 
whole, and not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars in any- 
one year, at an interest not exceeding six per centum per annum, 
and reimbursable at any time after the year one thousand eight 
hundred and three, by installments not exceeding one-fifth of the 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 13 

whole sum borrowed in any one year; which said loan or loans 
shall be appropriated and applied by the said commissioners, in 
carrying into effect the above recited act, under the control of 
the President of the United States. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the lots, except those 
now appropriated to public use in the said city, vested in the 
commissioners aforesaid, or in trustees, in any manner, for the 
use of the United States, now holden and remaining unsold, 
shall be and are hereby declared and made chargeable with the 
repaj-ment of all and every sum and sums of money, and in- 
terest thereupon, which shall be borrowed in pursuance of this 
act; and to the end that the same may be fully and punctually 
repaid, the said lots, or so many of them as shall be necessary, 
shall be sold and conveyed at such times, and in such manner, 
and on such terms, as the President of the United States for the 
time being shall direct ; and the moneys arising from the said 
sales shall be applied and appropriated, under his direction, to 
the discharge of the said loans, after first paying the original 
proprietors any balances due to them respectively, according to 
their several conveyance to the said commissioners or trustees. 
And if the product of the sales of all the said lots shall prove 
inadequate to the payment of the principal and interest of the 
sum borrowed under this act, then the deficiencies shall be paid 
by the United States, agreeably to the terms of the said loans ; 
for it is expressly hereby declared and provided that the United 
States shall be liable only for the repayment of the balance of 
the moneys to be borrowed under this act, which shall remain 
unsatisfied by the sales of all the lots aforesaid, if any such 
balance shall thereafter happen. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That every purchaser or pur- 
chasers, his orjtheir heirs or assigns, from the said commission- 
ers or trustees, under the direction of the said President, of any 
of the lots herein before mentioned, after paying the price and 
fulfilling the terms stipulated and agreed to be paid and fulfilled, 
shall have, hold, and enjoy the said lot or lots so bought, free, 
clear, and exonerated from the charge and incumbrance hereby 
laid upon the same. 

Sec. 4. And be it farther enacted, That the commissioners afore- 
said shall semi-annually render to the Secretary of the Treasury 
a particular account of the receipts and expenditures of all 
moneys intrusted to them, and also the progress and state of 
the business, and of the funds under their administration ; and 
.that the said secretary lay the same before Congress at every 
session after the receipt thereof. 

Approved May 6, 1796. 



14 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

\ 

Tho District of Columbia, in which the seat of government is 
located, and which was defined in the act of July 16, 1790, was 
ceded by the States of Maryland and Virginia to the General 
Government. It consisted of a tract of country ten miles 
square until 1846, when by act of Congress (July 9 of that year) 
that portion ceded by Virginia was restored to her. The 
restoration was completed by a proclamation of President Polk, 
bearing date of September 7, 1846. 

This left the Government in control of the portion ceded by 
Maryland, consisting of sixty square miles. The City of Wash- 
ington was founded in 1793, and in 1800 the seat of government 
was moved from its temporary location at Philadelphia to its 
present place. At that time the entire territorial area of the 
United States was only 610,512 square miles, which was less than 
one-fourth its present size, exclusive of the Eussian possessions ; 
and by reference to the map of the country at that time it will 
be seen that the American nation, which our venerable fathers 
founded after years of toil and bloodshed, only consisted of a 
little strip of uninviting country stretching along the Atlantic 
shore from New Hampshire to Georgia, and the wild and 
unknown Northwestern Territory, reaching beyond the Allegha- 
nies to the Mississippi river and the lakes. In other words, the 
United States at that time consisted of the following States and 
one Territory : New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
and the Northwestern Territory. The population of the countrj 
at that time was 3,929,827, which was but little more than the 
present population of the State of New York. Our sea-coast 
was large, but our commerce of little value. "We had not more 
than 1,000 miles of river navigation on the Atlantic slope, and 
the great lakes were far out in the West and of no use at the 
time. The Mississippi river was but little known, and even the 
Spaniards had navigated the Gulf of Mexico for two hundred 
years before its discovery. At that time there were no railroads, 
no steamboats, no telegraphs, but little education, and the conti- 
nent still almost a wilderness, and our ancestors struggling 
against nature in her rudest form and the wild savagos of the 
forests. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 15 

The debates upon the bill locating the seat of government 
at its present plaee show three considerations involved in the 
discussion : 

First, that common selfishness which is everywhere seen in 
the acts of men. Many desired its location where it would build 
up local and personal interests. 

Another argument was in favor of putting the Capital whsre 
it could be easily defended in time of war. 

But the most important consideration was that which required 
its location in a central position, so as to accommodate the States 
as they were situated along the shore of the Atlantic. This, I 
repeat, as the debates upon the removal of the seat of govern- 
ment from New York to its present place show, was the most 
important consideration. The Constitution had just been adopted 
and the new Government took its place among the nations of 
the earth, and the representatives of the people at once sought 
to permanently locate the seat of government at such a place as 
would be most central to the States and the business interests of 
the people. Such was the wisdom of the representatives of the 
people at the foundation of the Old Government, and such ought 
to be the wisdom of the representatives of the people at the 
foundation of the New Eepublic. 



THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



Passing from a consideration of the Old Government, let us 
now turn to a consideration of the Xew Republic, or of our 
country as it is now, in all its broad extent. Little did our 
ancestors dream, -when struggling for independence upon the 
narrow slope of the Atlantic, that they were founding a nation 
that would yet grow to be the greatest in mankind's history. 
Little did they know that they were organizing for a civil 
conquest of the continent — that from the parent home colonial 
columns would go out across the continent in every direction, 
seeking new homes and greater fortunes. Xo warrior ever 
prosecuted a conquest against any nation that conformed to 
more exact military rule than that of the civil conquest of this 
continent. While the central column was moving to the heart 
of the continent and onward to the great mountains, the right 
and left columns were flanking the great Lakes on the Xorth and 
the Gulf on the South. Nothing retarded the movement or 
changed the direction of the pioneers and explorers but the 
arbitrary policy of the Government in establishing Indian reser- 
vations. While the central and right and left columns were 
marching in the front, a new movement was projected, and a 
force was sent around Cape Horn which entered by the Pacific 
Ocean, in the rear of the continent, on the goldei ' Dres of 
California; and thus the conquest goes on, and soon tl. 
will all meet and the continent be carved into one con. 
of great States. 

By reference to the map it will be seen that the Xsw Pep. 
or the territorial extent of the Government as it now is, spans 
the continent in extent from ocean to ocean, and in breadth 
reaches from the lakes to the Gulf. Instead of the old thirteen 
States and one Territory, which constituted the Old Government, 




/ 



s 



^\. 




rr - -v l m 



States ana uue rw 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



17 



the following new States and Territories have been added, 
which, in their broad extent and union with the old States, con- 
stitute the New Kepnblic : 



Kentucky, 

Yermont, 

Tennessee, 

Ohio, 

Louisiana, 

Indiana, 

Mississippi, 

Illinois, 



NEW STATES. 

Alabama, 
Maine, 

Missouri, 

Colorado, 

Arkansas, 

Michigan, 

Florida, 

Iowa, 



Texas, 

Wisconsin, 

California, 

Minnesota, 

Oregon, 

Kansas, 

Nevada, 

Nebraska. 



New Mexico, 

Utah, 

Washington, 



TERRITORIES. 

Dakota, 
Arizona, 
Montana, 



Idaho, 

Wyoming, 

N. W. America. 



These added States and Territories in themselves combine 
all the elements of a great nation, far greater than that of our 
fathers. Whereas the area of the Old Government was 610,512 
square miles, the New Eepublic has an area of 2,950,264 square 
miles, being more than four times greater in extent than the Old 
Government, exclusive of Alaska, which contains 577,390 square 
miles. With the expansion of the territorial extent of the 
Eepublic has also been added immense river, lake and ocean 
facilities for water transportation. 

It is estimated that over two-fifths of our national territory 
is now drained by the Mississippi river and its tributaries, and 
more than one-half is embraced by what may be called its 
middle region, one-fourth of its total area belongs to the Pacific, 
and one-sixth to the Atlantic proper, one twenty-sixth to the 
Lakes, one-ninth to the Gulf, or one-third to the Atlantic, 
including the Lakes and the Gulf. 

In reference to the facilities for water transportation, a cal- 
culation was made at the office of the Coast Survey, for 1853, 
which gives for the total main shore line of the United States, 



18 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

exclusive of sounds, islands, etc., twelve thousand miles, of 
which fifty-four per cent, belongs to the Atlantic coast, eighteen 
to the Pacific, and twenty-eight to the Gulf coast; and that if 
all these be followed, and the rivers entered to the head of tide 
water, the total line would be extended to 33,069 miles. Instead 
of 1,000 miles of available river navigation belonging to the Old 
Government, we now have in our broad extent about 20,000 
miles, as follows : 

Miles. 

Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Snelling 2,131 

Missouri, from mouth to Boseman..... 3,525 

Ohio to Pittsburg 1,036 

Illinois to LaSalle 300 

Ouachita to Arkadelphia ,.... 601 

Red River to Jefferson 720 

Yazoo to Le Flore 257 

Little Red to Searcey Landing 45 

Arkansas to Fort Gibson 800 

White to Forsyth 692 

Black to Pocahontas 150 

Currant to Doniphan 60 

Tennessee to Florence 289 

Cumberland to Nashville 193 

Osage to Osceola 200 

Kansas 200 

Big Sioux.... 75 

Yellow Stone 800 

Minnesota -. 295 

St. Croix 60 

Chippewa — 

Monongahela to Geneva (slack-water, 4 locks) 91 

Muskingum to Dresden, do 8 do 100 

Green River to Bowling Green,do 5 do 180 

Kentucky to Brooklyn, do 5 do 117 

Kanawha to Gauley Bridge 100 

Wabash to Lafayette 335 

Salt to Shepherdsville 30 

Sondey to Louisa 25 

Rio Grande 2,000 

Colorado 1,000 

Sacramento , 500 

Columbia 500 

Snake Fork 310 

Clark's Fork 225 

Willamette 200 

Rivers of Atlantic Slope 1,000 

Note.— Steamboats have ascended the Des Moines to Des Moines City, Iowa River 
to Iowa City, Cedar River to Cedar Rapids, and the Maquoketa to Magaketa City, 
bat onJy during temporary floods. Boats have sone up many other small rivers 
in past years, but as the country becomes more cultivated the wash and drift are 
greater, and the smaller streams nil up and are thus rendered useless for navigable 
purposes. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 19 

In addition to the immense increase of available river naviga- 
tion, we have also acquired vast mineral fields of wealth in 
almost every part of our domain. So, too, have we added 
immense forests of valuable timber of all kinds necessary to 
supply the wants of the industrious and growing people. 

Taking the continent as a whole, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and from our northern boundary to the Gulf, it is not 
equaled in natural advantages by any country on the globe, and 
none other is more calculated to facilitate the advancement of 
civilization. Its immense navigable advantages, its dense 
forests of every variety of valuable timber, its outstretching 
expanse of fertile lands, and its inexhaustible and incalculable 
minerals, combine to make it the greatest nation of the earth in 
commerce, agriculture, mechanics, and wealth. In support of 
this statement, let us appeal to facts, and then see, after a care- 
ful examination, if we can judge anything of the future by 
the past. 

Besides the immense acquirement of natural wealth, to us are 
given the wonderful creations of genius. We have the railroad 
traversing our lands everywhere; we have the steamboat upon 
all our navigable rivers ; we have the telegraph connecting our 
cities, and the steam-engine doing our bidding in almost every 
phase of industrial enterprise. Thus we are, with all our conti- 
nental growth, a new nation, requiring new laws, new advan- 
tages, and more appropriate uses in governmental affairs. Our 
unlimited sea-coast uniting us with all the commerce of the 
world, and our vast domain putting us within reach of every 
climate on the globe, and all our natural advantages combined, 
point to our future imperial greatness ; and at every step we 
take forward wisdom tells us that the conditions and regulations 
of the Old Government are not adapted to the wants of the New 
Eepublic, for they were only the regulations and conditions of 
childhood, and not suited to the growth and maturity of man- 
hood. It will be found, on examination, that we are mot every- 
where with evidence demanding a change of the National Capi- 
tal from the Old Government to the New Eepublic. 



THE NATIONAL GROWTH 



MATERIAL POWER OF THE CONTINENT. 



Man everywhere and in all ages has ever sought for power and 
dominion. He has traversed the oceans, seas, continents, and 
islands; ascended the rivers and scaled the mountains; defied 
the climates and the great depths ; and everywhere untiringly 
moves on after dominion and profit. Before our independence 
was achieved, the thought of continental empire had already 
entered the minds of many far-seeing persons in this and other 
lands. "Prophetic Yoices about America" were not wanting in 
numbers to foretell the triumphs of that spirit of adventure 
which, in the fifteenth century, carried Tasco di Gama around the 
Cape of Good Hope, and Columbus to America. Even the age 
seemed to be instinctive with a better life, and prophets of one 
land and heroes of another were unqualifiedly pointing to 
America as the place for the future empire of the world. 

As early as 1755, John Adams, but twenty years old, and the 
future statesman of Massachusetts, wrote to a friend in the fol- 
lowing words: "Soon after the reformation a few people came 
over into this new world for conscience' sake. Perhaps this 
apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire 
into America. It looks likely to me ; for if we can remove the 
turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the most exact com- 
putations, will in another century become more numerous than 
in England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may 
say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be 
easy to obtain a mastery of the seas, and the united force of all 
Europe will not be able to subdue us." 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMIGRE. ■ 21 

This was the expression of a young school-teacher twenty-one 
years before the Declaration of Independence was made by the 
colonies. John Adams lived to see a system of government 
founded which, with broad and comprehensive policies, was des- 
tined to bring forth upon the American continent a nation of 
grander proportions and greater triumphs in civilization than 
his most enlarged understanding could comprehend. 

His son, John Quincy Adams, at a later day, remarked of his 
father's letter : " Had the political part of it been written by the 
minister of state of a European monarchy, at the close of a long 
life spent in the government of nations, it would have been pro- 
nounced worth}' of the united wisdom of a Burleigh, a Sully, or 
an Oxenstiern. In one bold outline he has exhibited by anticipa- 
tion a long succession of prophetic history, the fulfillment of which 
is barely yet in progress, responding exactly hitherto to his foresight, 
but the full accomplishment of which is reserved for after ages." 

Next to John Adams stands Mr. Jefferson, with clear concep- 
tions of the future of the American nation. Soon after the 
treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians, by which was acquired a 
broad belt of territory extending from the mouth of the Illinois 
river to and up the Ohio, Mr. Jefferson first began to look with 
serious considerations to the future greatness of the nation ; and 
the treaty with the Louisiana purchase led him to say that he 
"would not give one inch of the waters of the Mississippi river 
to any nation." And with prophetic conception he was again 
led to say, " When we shall be full on this side the Mississippi 
river we may lay off a range of States on the western bank, 
from the head to the mouth, and so, range after range, ad- 
vancing compactly as we multiply." Thus it is, each succeeding 
generation does its woi'k in fulfillment of the great prophecies 
of those wise men. 

Before our independence was acknowledged, French Catholic 
missionaries had descended the Mississippi river, and by the 
right of discovery claimed the country along its shores for 
France, and named it Louisiana, after King Louis. In 1762 
France ceded it to Spain. In 1800 Bonaparte became First 
Consul, and induced Spain to cede it back to France. Soon 
after the cession France became fearful of England on account 
of national difficulties, and sold the country to the United States 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 22 

for 815,000,000. This territory was known as the Louisiana 
Purchase, and included all the country of Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and part of Minnesota, Nebraska, 
and Kansas, besides a pretended claim to the whole territory 
extending to the Pacific Ocean. It must be kept in mind that 
all these vast possessions did not belong to the United States at 
the time of the location of the seat of government at its present 
place. In addition to the Louisiana purchase, Texas was annexed 
in 1845, New Mexico, California, and all the territory between 
the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean has been added 
within the present century; and in rapid succession has State 
after State come into the Union, and the telegraph, the rail- 
road, the steamboat, the printing-press, and the schoolhouse, have 
followed on in this great march of empire, and taken the place 
of the Indian trail, the wigwam, the hunting-ground, and the 
home of the buffalo. 

Turn which way we will, upon this " vast, wide continent," 
and wo see the chain of empire being made complete under 
one all-embracing Constitution. Climates of every character, 
minerals of every quality and value, rivers stretching in great 
lengths and uniting every zone, all combine to give greatness 
and destiny to this nation, made of the wisdom and excellences 
of all nations, and this people, made of the commingled and 
regenerated blood of all people. Sublime thought! Grandest 
and broadest of our age ; that which energizes the individual 
and regales the future with royal promise. 

Thus step by step has the Eepublic advanced in greatness, as 
predicted by the fathers, until with clear vision John Bright, 
the great English statesman and commoner, sees beyond the 
present the fulfilment of the prophecies of the fathers, and with 
conscious certainty speaks as follows of the future nationality 
of the New Eepublic : 

"I see one. vast confederation stretching from the frozen 
Xorth in one unbroken lino to the glowing South, and from the 
wild billows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of 
the Pacific, and I see one people, and one law, and one language, 
and one faith, and over all that vast continent, the home of 
freedom and refuge for the oppressed of every race and of 
every clime." 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 23 



COMMERCE OF THE OCEAN. 

Turning from our national growth to a consideration of the 
material power of the continent, the first interest to be con- 
sidered is the growth of our commerce upon the ocean. This 
element of our progress comes first, as the legitimate conse- 
quence of the infant nation having its existence along the 
Atlantic shore of the continent, which was akin to the com- 
mercial shores of Western Europe. 

Besides the immense territorial expansion of our Government, 
its material growth and power is of infinite concern. The fol- 
lowing tables show what our commerce was at the time of the 
adoption of the Constitution, and how it has grown until tho 
present time. 

But the growth of our ocean commerce has not been confined 
to our Eastern sea-board, nor to the development of the Atlantic 
elope, by any means. Already the Valley States furnish the 
greater part of the foreign commerce of the country, and the 
Pacific slope is also rapidly adding to its value and its tonnage. 



24 



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CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



27 



COMMERCE OP THE LAKES. 

From the commerce of the ocean we pass to a consideration of 
the commerce of the great lakes. The following tables show their 
statistics of measurement and the tonnage of their carrying fleet : 

TABLE OF MEASUREMENT OF THE LAKES. 



Lakes. 


Greatest 
length. 


Greatest 
breadth. 


Mean 
depth. 


Elevation. 


Area. 


Superior 


Miles. 
355 
320 
260 
240 
180 


Miles. 

160 

100 

160 

80 

35 


Feet. 
900 
900 
900 
84 
500 


Faet. 
627 
578 
574 
565 
232 


Sq. miles . 

32,000 

22,000 

20,400 

9.600 

6,300 


Michigan 




Total 


1,555 








90,300 



TABLE SHOWING THE CARRYING FLEET ON THE LAKES. 



No. 



Tonnage. 



Value. 



Steamers... 
Propellers. 

Barks 

Brigs 

Schooners., 

Sloops ,. 

Barges , 



143 

254 

74 

85 

1,068 

16 

3 



53,522 

70,253 

« 33,203 

24,831 

227,831 

667 

3,719 



$2,190,300 

3,573,300 

982,900 

526,200 

5,955,550 

12,770 

17,000 



Totals. 



1,643 



413,026 



$13,257,020 



The above statement shows only the carrying fleet of the 
United States on the lakes. The Canadas also have a large fleet. 

These lakes are estimated to drain an entire area of 333,515 
square miles, and- discharge their waters into the ocean through 
the Eiver St. Lawrence, which is navigable from Lake Erie 
downward to all vessels not exceeding 130 feet keel, 26 feet 
beam, and 10 feet draft. Previous to 1800 there was scarcely a 
craft above the size of an Indian canoe in what was then called 
a pathless wilderness. The first American schooner launched 
upon Lake Erie was built at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1797, but 
was soon lost. 

The shipping employed on these great lakes has had various 
alternations of fortune. The development of steam and sailing 



28 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



vessels began to be conspicuous in 1833, and rapidly rose in the 
succeeding five years to 50,000 tons. In 1843 another great im- 
pulse was given to that trade, and, with the exception of a slight 
reverse in 1857, it has steadily increased to the present time. 
The present commerce of these lakes has an annual value of 
$450,000,000, or more than twice the external commerce of the 
whole country, and, as will be seen by the preceding table, is 
carried on by a fleet of 1,643 vessels. 

COMA1EECE OF THE EIVEES. 

Erom the lakes and their commerce let us turn to the rivers 
and their commerce. I have already stated that the rivers of 
the Atlantic slope, the Mississippi and her tributaries, together 
with the rivers of Texas and the Pacific slope, would make 
20,000 miles of navigable water. Upon these inland waters 
floats the greatest commerce of the country. 

The following table exhibits the carrying fleet of the Missis- 
sippi and her tributaries: 

Table showing the Conveying Fleet of the Mississippi river and 

its tributaries. 



POKTS . 


O x 

T ~ 

- ffl 


r3 . 


Carrying 
capacity. 


a 7- 

S.O 

> 




150 
20 
25 
20 
15 
66 
70 

12 

80 

10 

159 

39 
210 

44 








30,497.16 

3.204.37 
3.043.51 
2.297.77 
1,173.86 
14,100.64 
9,849.62 


42,983 

5,137 
5.019 
3,305 
2,192 
25,425 
15,121 


$4,134,000 


Galena 


459.500 
402.600 
435.000 




178,500 




1,994.500 
1,011,200 


Nashville 


1.1S3.06 


2,156 


108, U0O 


*Natchez 






15,860.07 

1,100. SO 

33,59S.OO 


21,625 

2,893 

42,471 


1.292. 000 


Pittsburgh (81 tu^-s) 


265,000 
3,920,800 






St. Paul 


3. OSS. 52 
86,532.34 

9,538.11 


4.073 
110,769 


607.500 
8,830.000 


~Wheelin°" 


S,075 


91S.600 






Totals 


910 


216,067.83 


292.144 


824.556,600 



* No registration at these ports, for want of local inspectors. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 29 

Touching the commerce of the Mississippi Yalley, I hereby 
submit a paper by Professor S. Waterhouse, of this city, which 
was read before the Eiver Improvement Convention, held in St. 
Louis, February 12th and loth, 1867. Although the letter has 
some parts not specially adapted to my purpose in this connec- 
tion, on account of discussing outside interests, yet it contains 
that which bears with force directly upon this discussion, and 
will be found interesting to the reader: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : . 

The right of a government to institute internal improvements 
is one of the essential incidents of sovereignty. Under all forms 
of polity, this power is justly vested in the central authority. 
Even despotic governments, which reverse the republican idea 
and administer affairs of state in the interest of a titled minor- 
ity, have exercised this power for the benefit of the nation. 
Austria has expended large sums for the improvement of the 
navigation of the Danube. But a democracy rests upon the 
fundamental principle that the interests of the people are 
supreme. Our republican Government, in which is vested the 
exclusive control of internal improvements, is then bound by the 
most solemn obligations to consult the general welfare of the 
nation. But if it neglects this trust, then momentous interests 
which have been confided to its sole guardianship and fostering 
care must suffer, and popular rights, which can appeal only to 
constitutional processes of enforcement, will be ignored. 

In the present instance, our duty is not arduous. The unmis- 
takable jurisdiction of Congress, the frequent precedents and 
liberal policy of the Government, leave us only the easy task 
of showing that the proposed improvement of the Mississippi 
Rapids is a work of national importance. 

The Mississippi and its affluents, draining an area of more 
than 1,000,000 square miles, and affording a water-carriage of 
more than 15,000 miles, form a system of river navigation 
unequaled in the civilized world. The entire coast line of the 
United States is less than 13,000 miles long j but the river line 
of the Mississippi and its tributaries, including both banks, is 
more than 30,000 miles long. The trade which now floats on 
these waters is immense. Its magnitude startles the imagina- 
tion. In 1860 the total foreign commerce of the United States 
was $760,000,000. In 1865 the trade of nine cities on the 
Mississippi and Ohio rivers amounted to $747,000,000. The 
annual commerce of the Mississippi Yalley is now estimated at 
$2,000,000,000. The yearly traffic of the upper Mississippi, 
which would be directly affected by the obstructions in the river, 



30 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

is $150,000,000. The amount of commerce which is annually 
deflected from the Mississippi by the difficulties of navigation is 
computed at $100,000,000. The yearly damage which the rapids 
inflict upon navigation is appraised at §10,000,000. In 1865 the 
direct loss occasioned by the impediments at Keokuk amounted 
to more than $500,000. The eight miles of obstructed naviga- 
tion sometimes delay a steamer five days. This detention is a 
source of great expense. A steamer with a carrying capacity 
of 18,000 bushels of sacked grain would require a force of sixty 
hands. The daily cost of so large a crew is heavy. A delay of 
three or four days entails a great expense. After the improve- 
ment of the rapids, a tow-boat with the same motive power and 
a crew of twenty hands would transport 225,000 bushels of 
grain. The Ajax once towed from Louisville to New Orleans 
460,000 bushels of coal. For more than half of the boating 
season navigation is embarrassed by low water on the rapids. 
During the period of shallow water no boat can carry freight 
enough for a profitable trip without lighting over the rapids. 
But the employment of barges involves a serious expense. In 
the absence of elevators it has necessitated the use of sacks. 
Wheat sacks now cost from seventy to eighty cents a piece; or, 
if hired, two and a half cents per bushel for each shipment. 
The expense of the four transfers at the Eock Island and Keokuk 
rapids is twelve cents a bushel, and the loss from waste is seven 
cents more. During the season of 1866 the Northern Line 
Packet Company paid $21,100 for lighting over the rapids. The 
packages received by this company numbered, in 

1865 1,243,000 

1866 979,000 

This decrease of 264,000 packages was entirely due to low 
water. The company estimate their receipts for 1866, in case 
there had been uninterrupted navigation, at 2,500,000 packages. 

The present method of handling grain is very expensive. 
The waste of grain by carriage in sacks, the extra labor, the 
transfer to the shore, the damage, the cost of tarpaulins, and the 
injury to the sacks, amount to 16 cents per bushel. The dangers 
of navigation increase the rates of insurance. The perils of the 
rapids add one-half of one per cent, to the price of every bushel 
of grain which is shipped to market from the Upper Mississippi. 
This assessment upon the industry of farmers is oppressive and 
unnecessary. Under all the existing difficulties the freight of 
cereals from the Upper Mississippi to New York is far cheaper 
by way of New Orleans than it is by the lakes and the New 
York canal. The comparative rates of transportation from 
Dubuque to New York are : 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 31 

Via the lakes 68 cents per bushel. 

Via New Orleans 38 " kk " 



Difference in favor of Southern route 30 



a a 



The present cost of shipping grain from Chicago to Cairo by 
rail, and thence to New York by water, is no greater than the 
freight to the same point by way of the lakes. The existing 
winter tariff on wheat in bulk from Chicago to New York is : 

By the lakes , 44 cents per bushel. 

From Chicago to Cairo, by rail 20 " " " 

From Cairo to New Orleans, by water 12 " " " 

From New Orleans to New York, by water 12 " " " 

So great is the cheapness of river carriage that the rates of 
the Southern route, increased by 300 miles of costly railroad 
transit, do not exceed those of the Northern line. 

There is an actual saving of 30 cents a bushel by the New 
Orleans route ; yet at present, so great are the delays, risks, and 
infacilities of river transportation, the Northern lines of transit 
are still preferred.* 

It is thought that, after the improvement of the rapids, the 
introduction of barges for the transportation and the erection of 
elevators for the transfer of grain in bulk, the freight of cereals 
from the Upper Mississippi to New York will be reduced to 25 
cents per bushel. After the completion of these public works, 
the successful competition of the Mississippi would compel the 
railroads to reduce their rates of carriage. Even if there was 
no change in the channels of transportation, this reduction of 
freights would itself justify the removal of obstructions in the 
Mississippi. But there will be a change in the routes of freight- 
age. Uninterrupted water carriage always affords the cheapest 
transportation. This fact is forcibly illustrated by the present 
movement of cereals. More than 75 per cent, of the grain 
received at Chicago is carried there by rail, but from that point 
only 10 per cent, is sent eastward by rail ; 90 per cent, is shipped 
by the lakes. 

It is sometimes alleged that the heat in the Gulf of Mexico is 
too great for the safe transport of grain by the Southern route. 
Corn is much more liable to be damaged by atmospheric influ- 
ences than wheat, and the flour made from spring wheat is far 
more susceptible of injury from humidity than the grain from 
which it is manufactured. Yet the present trade of New Orleans 
in corn and spring-wheat flour is immense. Besides, the move- 
ment of Western cereals is made in the cooler months. Almost 

* Since the original publication of this article, a reduction of the freights on North- 
ern lines has diminished the relative cost of Eastward transportation, but there is still 
a difference of not less than 8 or 10 cents a bushel in favor of shipments to the Atlantic 
seaboard by the Southern route. 



32 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

all our shipments of grain are made from September to June ; 
so that, even if the midsummer heat of the Gulf was an objec- 
tion to the Southern route, the difficulty would be obviated by 
the season of transportation. 

The fact, too, that large quantities of Western flour are now 
exported without injury to the trans-equatorial countries of 
South America must not be ignored. Wheat is carried unharmed 
from San Francisco around Cape Horn to Xew York. The vast 
amounts of grain wbich are brought to Europe from the Dan- 
ubian provinces, through the high temperature of the Mediter- 
ranean, reach their destination in a sound condition. The 
assertion, then, that cereals would be seriously injured by warmth 
and moisture in their passage through the Gulf is an allegation 
unwarranted by facts. A fear so foreign to commercial experi- 
ence may be dismissed as a baseless apprehension. 

But the Mississippi river, though entitled by a divine patent to 
the transportation of this valley, is now defrauded of its rights. 
An unlineal heir enjoys the inheritance. The value of the traffic 
deflected from the Mississippi into unnatural channels reaches 
an annual aggregate of tens of millions. In 1865, out of the 
48,000,000 bushels of grain shipped to Chicago, 15,000,000 were 
brought from points on the Mississippi. According to Mr. Dodge, 
three-fifths of all the wheat received in 1865 at Milwaukee and 
Chicago came from the towns on the banks of the Mississippi. 

The shipments were : 

Flour, bbls. Wheat, bush. 

East by rail 273,252 12,551,014 

South by river 37,372 1,468,231 

The following figures, furnished by Mr. Gilman, of Dubuque, 
express the actual cost of shipments from Chicago to New York : 

Date. Vessels. Bushels. Freights. Sundries. 

P. P. Cunningham 12,761 $4, 60S 01 $232 62 

E. P. Dorr 11,679 5,527 25 552 85 

Sailor Boy 18,700 7,946 87 445 02 

Collingwood 16,313 6,634 56 495 95 

Dolphin 14,000 4,545 90 245 65 

W. F. Allen 18,374 4,023 89 366 90 



Oct. 1, 


1S65 


" 7, 


4 i 


" 21, 


i I 


" 31, 


i I 


Nov. 8, 


I i 


" 8, 


i i 



87,827 $33,2S6 18 $2,438 00 

There was also an additional charge of 82,195 67 at the 
Chicago elevators. Hence, the total expense of these ship- 
ments was $37,920 84, or more than 43 cents a bushel. This 
exhibit does not include commissions, storage, interest, insur- 
ance, government tax, or losses; but it does embrace wharfage, 
towing, measuring, sampling, and the cost of transfer at the 
Buffalo elevators. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 83 

These figures prove the supreme necessity of the projected 
improvements. The lakes are closed four months out of the 
twelve, but the Mississippi is open as high as Dubuque nine 
months in the year. Yet, notwithstanding this longer period of 
navigation and the continuous water carriage to Eastern mar- 
kets, obstructions have almost wholly diverted the carrying trade 
of the Mississippi from its legitimate channel, and forced it into 
unnatural courses of transit. The unnecessary expense to which 
these impediments to navigation subject Western farmers is an 
oppressive tax upon agricultural industry. Agriculture is the 
basis of our public welfare. Upon it alone can rest an enduring 
superstructure of national prosperity. During the financial crisis 
of the last struggle, its unfailing resources alone upheld the credit 
of the public Treasury. Agriculture deserves the patronage of 
the Government. Its interests should be promoted by every aid 
of judicious legislation. But now, from the obstructions of navi- 
gation and the consequent want of competitive river transit, the 
railroad "freight from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan costs 
more than one-fifteenth of the value of the grain. At the present 
price of wheat, this tariff, on the annual shipment of 50,000,000 
bushels, would amount to $6,000,000. This yearly exaction is 
larger than the appropriation which Congress is asked to grant 
for the improvement of both rapids. The West now petitions 
Congress to grant relief from this hardship. An appeal sustained 
by such clear and imperative considerations of justice cannot be 
disregarded. A reduction of the cost of carriage is an object of 
national moment. It justly challenges the attention of states- 
men ; it affects the prosperity of the nation ; it promotes alike 
the interests of the producer and the consumer ; it enables the 
Western husbandman to make larger profits and buy more East- 
ern merchandise ; it empowers the Atlantic manufacturer to live 
♦cheaper and sell more of his fabrics. The benefit is national. 

At present almost the entire Eastern movement of cereals is 
-carried on by way of the lakes. These Northern waters hold 
adverse possession of the carrying trade. The lake transporta- 
tion companies have perfected all the machinery of freightage. 
They enjoy the advantages of long establishment, compact 
organization, and full equipment. But though the cost of ship- 
ment by the Mississippi is far less than by the lakes, adequate facil- 
ities for the transportation of our cereals do not exist on this 
river. There is no systematic combination, no means of con- 
veyance commensurate with the wants of this valley. 

But after the construction of the canals around the rapids, 
floating elevators and tow-boats will soon present ample facilities 
for cheap transfer and water carriage. Then the active compe- 
tition of rival lines of barges and propellers will reduce still 
further the cost of Eastward shipments. This reduction in 



34 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

the rates of freights would be a national economy. It would 
lessen throughout the United States the expense of living. The 
quantit}* of Western cereals consumed in the Eastern States is 
immense. New England raises only one-fourteenth of the wheat 
which it consumes. Not even Pennsylvania and New York pro- 
duce grain enough for their own consumption. All the Eastern 
and Southern States are largely dependent for their supply of 
flour upon the cereal products of the Mississippi Valley. In 1865 
the receipts at the following points were : 

Flour, bbis. Grain, bush. 

Montreal 797,657 4,116,165 

Portland 547,953 2.431.733 

Boston 2.193.840 3.511.750 

New York 3.687,775 37,339.903 

Philadelphia 724. 49S 4,835,785 

Baltimore 996.276 6,149.660 

Tide-water by canal 1,014,000 45,830,100 

After the deduction of our foreign exports of grain, the amount 
left for Eastern consumption is enormous. Diminish the cost 
of carriage, and you increase the profits and lighten the toil of 
every workingman in the land. Every mechanic, artisan, and 
operative in the Atlantic States would feel, in the amelioration 
of* his condition, the beneficent effect of the contemplated im- 
provements. The consummation of this work would enlarge 
the sales of every manufacturer in New England. The prime 
necessities of our national life are far more vitally affected by 
the unobstructed navigation of the Mississippi than by the 
security of our Atlantic harbors. Yet the Government has 
expended millions upon the improvement of the seaboard. 
Numerous and liberal appropriations have been made by Con- 
gress to insure the navigation of the lakes. Assuredly the 
Government cannot deny to our appeal the favor which it has 
granted to claims of no higher obligation. One year's interest 
on the value of the commerce which these obstructions divert 
from the Mississippi would pay for their removal. The annual 
tax which the rapids levy on Western products equals the esti- 
mated cost of the proposed canals. This valley is entitled to 
the cheapest transportation which unobstructed water carriage 
can afford All additional cost of transit is an unjust discrimi- 
nation against agricultural industry. The difference in the price 
of grain between New York and the Mississippi Valley is a dead 
loss to the Western farmer. The heavy rates of freight levied 
on both eastward and westward exchanges oppress the producer 
with a double hardship. The cost of carriage is deducted from 
the value of Western grain, and added to the price of Eastern 
merchandise. This two-fold grievance, of which the West so 
justly complains, ought at once to be redressed. Congress should 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 35 

confer the earliest and the fullest relief which the nature of the 
case permits. An adherence to its settled polic} T , fidelity to its 
responsible trusts, and its high obligation to recognize popular 
rights and foster national interests, urge the Government to 
grant the solicited appropriation. 

Thus far, our attention has been mainly occupied with the 
consideration of a single interest. But the completion of this 
public work would not only affect the cereals, but every other 
product of the West. While it would encourage agriculture 
with larger rewards, it would stimulate all industries by foster- 
ing the source of their common prosperity. It would invest the 
Mississippi with its rightful control of the heavy exports and 
imports of this valley. It would develop commercial activity, 
and greatly promote the interchange of productions between 
different latitudes. It would hasten the return of the South to 
its true allegiance, and bind it to the Union with the strong ties 
of sectional interest. It would augment our foreign commerce. 
It would favor the direct exchange of heavy commodities. In 
1862, more than 80,000,000 bushels of grain, including flour, 
were exported from the United States. Though the effect of 
civil war upon our foreign commerce was disastrous, yet the 
value of breadstuffs exported from this country during the five 
years ending with 1865 was more than $360,000,000. If the 
United States possessed that control of European markets which 
the improvement of the Mississippi and the consequent cheap- 
ness of exportation would secure, our shipments of breadstuffs 
would expand into far grander proportions. The profits which 
the Atlantic cities would derive from this enlargement of our 
foreign commerce is an additional reason why the East should 
strenuously co-operate with the West to secure the consummation 
of this great work. 

But the West has a higher title to the favor of the Government 
than the consideration of mere material interests. Faithful to its 
patriotic instincts, the West fought for the Union throughout the 
late contest with a stubbornness of valor that was at once a 
defiance of defeat and a guarantee of victory. Without dispar- 
agement to the noble gallantry of Eastern soldiers, it was chiefly 
due'to the heroic efforts of our Western armies that the Missis- 
sippi now flows free to the Gulf. Their dauntless courage 
prevented the rupture of our national integrity, and rescued the 
mouth of the Mississippi from the control of a foreign power. 
Their fidelity has saved the Mississippi from the vexations of 
hostile imposts, and permitted its waters to flow untaxed to the 
ocean. To their service is to be ascribed the restoration of that 
unity and brotherhood for which the plastic hand of nature 
channeled this majestic stream. Assuredly the nation cannot 
forget its defenders. A government justly sensible of its obliga- 



36 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

tions will show a practical gratitude for the preservation of 
its life. 

The laws of trade ultimately enforce obedience. The imperial 
Mississippi, which traverses the central valley of this continent, 
and, independent of its tributaries, washes the borders. of ten 
States, will yet assert its commercial sovereignty. The God of 
nature has invested this majestic stream with rights of convey- 
ance which no railroad powers of attorney can transfer. The 
title of the Mississippi river to the commerce of this valley is 
attested with the Divine signature. The productions of the 
"West will be borne to the tide-water through channels which 
the Architect of nature formed. Our Western rivers will soon 
transport a greater wealth of traffic than ever before floated on 
inland waters. The usefulness of the projected improvement 
will increase with the growth of the Mississippi Yalley. 

The following table shows the population and grain crop of 
the eight Northwestern States during the last three decades : 

Tears. Population. Bushels. 

1840 3.340,500 165,698,800 

1850 5,403,600 310,950,300 

I860 8,855,900 556,801,900 

The Agricultural Bureau, basing its calculations on past 
results, makes the following approximate estimate of the cereal 
product of the Northwest for the next four decades : 

Years. Bushels. 

1870 762,200,000 

1880 1,219,520,000 

1890 1,951,232,000 

1900 3,121,970.000 

These numbers indicate a vastness of agricultural production 
and commercial exchange which the mind fails to grasp. Our 
conceptions of the future greatness of the "West are rather 
embarrassed than aided by these figures. In the coming time, 
tens of millions will throng this valley under the benign sway 
of one government. All the prosperities of a free people and a 
Christian civilization will gladden this land. Our waste terri- 
tories will become populous States. The resources of the soil 
and mine will be developed. Our wealth of agricultural and 
mineral productions will enrich the world. In that day the 
Mississippi will bear upon its bosom a commerce richer than 
the golden freights of classic story, and vaster than the mari- 
time trade of any people on the globe. Our Government ought 
at once to prepare the Mississippi for its glorious destiny. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



37 



BAILWAYS. 
Passing from our commerce upon the ocean, the lakes, and the 
rivers, let us turn to a consideration of our vast system of railway — 
the wonderful creation of American genius, industry, and wealth. 

Table showing the Annual Progress of Railways for the last forty years. 



Year. Miles. 

1828 3 

1829 28 

1830 41 

1831 54 

1332 131 

1S33 576 

1834 762 

1335 91S 

1336 1,102 

1337 1,421 

1338 1,843 

1339 1,920 

H40 2,197 

1841 3,319 




Year. Miles. 

1856 19,251 

1857 22,625 

1858 25,090 

1859 26,755 

I860 28,771 

1361 30,593 

1862 31,769 

1863 32,471 

1864 33,860 

1865 34,442 

1866 35,361 

1867 38,000 

1868 41,358 



Table showing the Railways of the United States by States . 



UNITED STATES 



Maine 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New *ork 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland and D. (J 

West Virginia 

Kentucky 

Ohio 

Michigan 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Wisconsin 

Minnesota 

Iowa 

Missouri 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

California 

Oregon 

Virginia 

North Carolina. ; 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

Louisiana 

Texas .,! 

Territories 



Total.. 



502.3 
659.33 
594.59 
,330.96 
119.24 
637.54 
,025.30 
904.41 
,037.15 
157.40 
522.60 
364.75 
625.911 
402.98 
966.12 
,211.80 
250.05 
,045.41 
392.00 
154.10 
937.75 
240.50 
275.00 
321.50 
19.50 
.416.70 
977.30 
988.93 
,437.22 
407.50 
891.16 
807.12 
,316.78 
191.00 
335.75 
479.50 



IS, 242,235 
22,052,063 
24,892,-234 
79,466,774 
4,858,799 
24,370,018 

152,570,769 
55,991,403 

210,080,309 
5,608,864 
30,573,275 
24,978,843 
22,392,122 

135,231,975 
41,675,724 
79,186,767 

139,084,414 

40,081,360 

12,450,000 

45,480,000 

51,357,077 

9,750,000 

12,500,000 

24,200,000 

500,000 

49,974.457 

20, 020 ; 310 

25,207,977 

29,177,683 

8,868.000 

21,010,982 

25,416,394 

34,185,210 

4,400,000 

13,627,654 

17,280,000 



$' 517.510.765 



$36,315 
33,446 
41.864 
59,704 
40,737 
38,225 
50,431 
61,913 
52,037 
37,279 
58,501 
68,493 
35,776 
39,739 
43,133 
35,802 
42,791 
3S,343 
31,760 
39,407 
54,995 
40,540 
45,454 
75,272 
25,641 
35,275 
20,4S5 
25,491 
20,31)1 
21,762 
25,154 
29,315 
25,937 
43,562 
40,577 
36,044 



Are 1 , of 
Country.' 



Sq. Mil 

31,766 

9,280 

10,212 

7,800 

1,306 

4,674 

47,000 

8,320 

46,000 

2,120 

11,184 

2' i, 541 

37,680 

39,964 

56,243 

33,809 

55,405 

53,924 

83,531 

55,045 

67,380 

78,418 

76,928 

188,982 

95,274 

61,352 

50,704 

29,385 

52,009 

59,269 

50,722 

47,156 

45,600 

52,198 

46,431 

237,504 

1,243,416 



628 
326 
315 

1,231 
174, 
460, 

3,880, 
672, 

2,909, 
112, 
762, 
349, 

1,155, 

2,339, 
749, 

1,350, 

1,711, 
775, 
172, 
674, 

1,182, 

107, 

28, 

379, 

52, 

1,246, 
992, 
703, 

1,057, 
140, 
964, 
791, 

1,109, 
435, 
709, 
602, 
524, 



279 
073 
098 
,066 
620 
147 
735 
035 
115 
216 
129 
698 
684 
511 
113 
428 
951 
8S1 
123 
913 
012 
'206 
841 
994 



So. M. Pod'd; 
" 62 1,234 



495 
529 
925 

II 1,467 
7| 721 

15 1,283 
9| 743 

III 720 
13 | 714 
21 1,457 
56 958 
60 1,846 



11 

58 

15 

17 

51 
213 

47 498 

72 1,260 
327 1 445 
279! 105 
508 1,180 



687 
775 
610 
527 
742 
439 



465 5,014 2,690 



129 3,001,002 31.747,514 81 1 860 



43l 879 
52 1,016 



28 
36 
145 
57 
54 
34 



711 

737 
345 
182 
913 

842 



273 2,279 
138 2,111 
495,1,257 



38 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

By the preceding tables it will be seen we have in the United 
States 86 ; 896 miles of railway, built at an expense of $1,517,510,- 
765, All this has been done since the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, and since the location of the seat of government 
at its present place. But this is not all; their construction over 
the country, and especially Westward, is being pushed forward 
at the rate of fifteen miles per day, and next year the two great 
oceans bounding the .Republic will be united by the completion 
of a great railway across the continent ; and with our frontier 
line advancing fifteen miles every year, the civil conquest of the 
continent will soon be complete. But, in justice to the cause of 
the subject of this pamphlet, let it be said in truth that these 
mighty works are being clone in the Mississippi Valley and west- 
ward of the Father of "Waters. 

Since the invention of the steam-engine, the railway system 
may be regarded as the greatest aid to civilization the arts have 
afforded, on account of the rapid intercommunion of men and 
ideas, and the exchange of products. Every additional investi- 
gation by the political economist and the socialist proves the 
influence of the railway upon the industry and intelligence of 
man to be the most potential of all his works. And it does 
really appear that the use of the railroads is destined to make all 
the agricultural interests of men subserve their highest uses, by 
enabling the producer to get the highest possible price for his 
produce, and the consumer at the least cost. The influence of 
railroads upon agriculture has been ably discussed by Mr. Joseph 
C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent of the United States Census for 
1860, in the Agricultural Department of the Eighth Census. 
Speaking of their great value, Mr. Kennedy says : 

"So great are their benefits, that if the entire cost of railroads 
between the Atlantic and Western States had been levied on the 
farmers of the central West, they could have paid it and been 
immensely the gainers. This proposition will become evident if 
we look at the modes in which railroads have been beneficial, 
especially in the grain-growing States. These modes are — first, 
in doing what could not have been effected without them; 
second, in securing to the producer very nearly the prices of the 
Atlantic markets, which are greatly in advance of what could 
have been got on his farm; and third, by thus enabling the pro- 
ducer to dispose of his products at the best prices at all times, 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 39 

and to increase vapidly both the settlement and the annual pro- 
duction of the interior States." 

Mr. Kenned}- gives the following table, showing the cash value 
of farms in five States, with their increase in ten years : 

1850. 1860. 

Ohio $358,758,602 $666,564,171 

Illinois 96,133,290 432,531,072 

Indiana 136,385,173 344,902,776 

Michigan 51,872,446 163,279,087 

Wisconsin 28,528,563 131,117,082 

Aggregate $671,678,075 $1,738,394,188 

Increase in ten years $1,066,716,113 

Mr. Kennedy says it is not too much to say that one-half of 
this increase has been caused by railroads. 

But the beneficial influence of the railroads cannot be con. 
fined to agriculture alone. Their influence is immeasurable upon 
the development of every commercial and industrial movement 
of our people, and consequently aids vastly the increase of 
population; and with the unequaled advantages for their con- 
struction and their use in the Mississippi Valley, they must be 
accounted a great auxiliary to the internal development of mate- 
rial power on the continent, and consequently of establishing 
the supremacy of the States of the Mississippi Yalley over those 
of both oceans, thus giving to them that supremacy in civiliza- 
tion which is theirs by nature. 

ISTo new field of art or industry now engages so much capital, 
and is pushed forward with so much enterprise, as that of the 
railroad interest of the country. Where they are not, stagna- 
tion in business and conservatism in public spirit prevail ; where 
they are, commerce and industry are vitalized. 

To show the preponderance of material power and wealth in 
the Mississippi Yalley, the following table is submitted. It 
exhibits the growth of our people, their genius, their wealth, 
and their wonderful industry : 



40 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



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41 



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42 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

In presenting it, we claim for it a superiority over any tabular 
statement of the material growth of the country that has ever 
appeared in public print. It contains upon its condensed surface 
the growth of centuries, and materials for volumes. At one 
glance the eye can scan the extent of territory, the population, 
the wealth, the industry, the live stock, the grains, the railroads, 
the progress, and the great working, moving embodiment of the 
country. Here, in one view, we can behold the growth of the 
most promising nation the world ever saw. Such is the pro- 
gress exhibited that the growth of each ten years is equal to the 
growth of a nation. There is no parallel in history or experi- 
ence for what we are, and none will ever surpass what we will 
be. Let us but labor to be as good as we will be great, and the 
solution of the problem of man's utility upon the earth will be 
solved before the close of another century. 

By reference to the tabular statement, showing the material 
growth of the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
it will be seen that in 1850 the States of the Atlantic slope were 
in advance of the Yalley States in almost every practical and 
available interest belonging to the agricultural pursuits. Corn 
and wheat were the two principal products in which the Yalley 
States excelled at that time. The Atlantic States had more 
land under cultivation, and a greater number of improved farms, 
the cash value of which was far greater than that of the Yalley 
States ; but the progress of ten years shows a wonderful change. 
When we compare the growth of 1850 with that of 1860, the 
advance is like the growth of a continent. 

In 1850 the aggregate of improved lands in the Atlantic 
States was 63,965,491 acres, at a cash value of 81,991,599,378. 
In the Yalley States the aggregate improved lands was 48,885,479 
acres, at a cash value of 81,232,941,038. In 1860 the aggregate 
of improved lands in the Atlantic States was 73,882,853 acres, 
at a cash value of 83,132,561,500. In the Yalley States the 
aggregate of improved lands was 87,034,199 acres, at a cash 
value of 83,446,702,533, showing, in the space of ten years, an 
advance of the Yalley States over the Atlantic States of 
13,151,346 acres of improved land, and a preponderance of cash 
value to the amount of 8314,141,053. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 43 

In addition to this wonderful growth of the West, the States 
and Territories of the Pacific slope have advanced from 181,644 
acres of improved land in 1850, at a cash value of $6,033,010, to 
3,537,668 acres of improved land in 1860, at a cash value of 
$67,780,934. These figures are most gratifying in their show- 
ing. The whole growth of the West, in agricultural pursuits, is 
unparalleled in the history of the human race, and yet the 
Kepublic is in its infancy. Massachusetts has but little more 
than one-half her acres under cultivation, while Illinois has far 
less than one-half her lands in farms. The improvements of 
the other States, in all the kindred elements of agriculture, are 
about in the same ratio. But what are these half developments 
when compared with the full growth of the country ? The ter- 
ritory of the Valley States is more than three times as large as 
that of the Atlantic States, and, with|its incomparable advantages 
for agriculture, must lead the way* in the pursuit of husbandry. 

We must comprehend that with the growth of the Eepublic 
must be the intellectual and moral growth of the people. As 
the nation expands, so must the legislative and moral mind ex- 
pand to comprehend its demands and necessities. The legislator 
must comprehend that the laws are yet to be of broader signifi- 
cance, and the moralist and the educationalist must also learn 
that precept and discipline must extend beyond to broader 
fields of use than heretofore ; and may we not hope that, at no 
distant day, some genius may arise who will add to the material 
statistics of the country the statistical growth of the morals and 
intellectual advancement of our people, and thus furnish the 
measure of our most valued growth ? 



DEMAND FOR A CHANGE OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 



— AND ITS — 



LOCATION AT ST. LOUIS. 



.Enlightened public sentiment everywhere demands the appro- 
priate use of all public interests. There can be but two essential 
considerations enter into the subject of locating the seat of gov- 
ernment in any nation. One is the propriety of locating it 
where it can be easily defended in time of war ; the other of 
locating where it will best subserve the public and special in- 
terests of the people of the government. The history of nations 
furnishes no considerations greater than these. It is probably 
true that the greater number of national capitals of antiquity 
became fixed by reason of the prestige of civil and commercial 
power being invested in certain places at the time of revolution 
or governmental changes. Some nations have considered the 
subject of locating their seats of government in a secure part 
of the country, but most capitals have been located where 
they would best accommodate the commercial interests of the 
people and the business interests of the industrial masses. In 
proof of this statement we have but to trace the map of the 
history of mankind, and almost everywhere we see governments 
yielding to the sway of commerce, whether upon the sea-coast 
or upon inland waters. While it is true that the argument in 
favor of locating so as to protect them from invasion is one of 
barbarian origin, it is still of some consideration to mankind, 
and cannot be heedlessly overlooked by this people. This con- 
sideration, as I have already stated, had some weight with the 
first Congress when the subject of a permanent seat of govern- 
ment was discussed. But the one which was of greater concern 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 45 

to them was the one which this people cannot overlook at the 
present time, and that was the argument in favor of locating the 
seat of government centrally, so as to accommodate the busi- 
ness interests of the American people. This is the argument 
that I shall endeavor to set forth in this pamphlet in its broadest 
and most significant form. 

No people in the world are so directly and so much interested 
in government as the American people, for theirs is "a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people j" and 
to-day Washington city, with the seat of government conven- 
tionally there, is not a practical reality to the great majority of 
the free, enlightened, and industrious American people. It is an 
effete thing of the past ; it is a place of no great interest in 
common with the great wealth, industry, and progress of the 
American nation. It is a tomb "full of dead men's bones," 
having neither beauty within nor without. It has served the 
purposes of the Old Government, and held the nation in bond- 
age, and now it is unfit for the purposes of the New Eepublic. 
It is henceforth a disgrace to the Eepublic that, with its 
40,000,000 inhabitants and its 40,000 miles of railway, its 
Capital should remain in a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and only 
one railroad going to and passing through it, and that, too, the 
most anti-American monopoly on the continent. 

There is an instinctive feeling pervading the American people 
that the growth of the Eepublic has rendered "Washington unfit 
to remain its Capital, and that, in subserviency to the will and 
demands of the people, the seat of government will be moved 
at an early date to the great Mississippi Yalley — to the banks of 
the Father of Waters — to St. Louis, occupying as she does sub- 
stantially the geographical center of the nation. Especially 
has she the most important points of special interest favorable 
for the seat of government, as I shall still further point out. 
No place, in the nation is more suitable for the seat of govern- 
ment. Every American writer who has spoken at all in public 
print has pointed to St. Louis as " the future home of the seat 
of government/' So also does the American statesman look to 
St. Louis as the most favored place for the Capital of the New 
Eepublic ; and true to the instinct of the people will it come, 
and that, too, before another five years passes away. This change 



46 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

of national empire is of more vast concern to the future exist- 
ence and welfare of the Eepublic than most people think. The 
Atlantic slope and Washington City are but the cradle and place 
of national life in our governmental infancy, and it is intolerable 
and impossible to attempt the continued confinement of our 
national life to that cradle after the nation in its maturer years 
has grown far away and far too great for that place of child- 
hood. Nothing is more deceptive than to think that this great 
people will not make the change. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT. 



St. Louis is situated on the west bank of the Mississippi 
river, 1,350 miles from its mouth, and about 1,100 miles from the 
Lake of the Woods on our northern boundary. It is about 1,000 
miles west from New York, and 2,000 miles east of San Fran- 
cisco. In its relation to our northern and southern boundaries 
it occupies substantially the geographical center of the country. 
Its position, when considered from the East and West, is not 
central, geographically speaking; yet I will show by the popula- 
tion, commercial, political, and conclusive arguments, that its 
geographical position, in reference to the Bast and West, is 
adjusted, and thus rendered the favored place for the seat of 
national empire for the New Eepublic. Even were there no 
other argument, it would be sufficient in itself to show that by 
far the greater portion of our national domain lies beyond the 
Mississippi river, and that the future unfoldment of the nation 
will be there. 

At least 10,000 miles of navigable rivers bear their commerce 
in the interest of St. Louis. And such is its geographical posi- 
tion that it must- be the vitalizing heart of the wealth, the 
industry, the civilization, the politics, and the social progress of 
the Mississippi Yalley. No inland place on the continent holds 
so favored a position. It is the great point of radiation. Situ- 
ated in the vicinity of the mouths of the Ohio, the Missouri, 
and the Illinois rivers, with New Orleans on the south, Chicago 
on the north, New York on the east, and San Francisco on the 
west, St. Louis cannot fail to hold the most important position 
of any city on the continent. 

But there is still a higher sense in which to view this matter. 
It will be found, by a close examination of the career of man- 
kind upon the earth, that they have lived and journeyed around 
the earth in the what has been called an isothermal zodiac, or 
belt of equal temperature, which girdles the earth in the north 
temperate zone. Within this girdle or zone are all the civilized 
nations of Asia, Europe, and America, and about 850,000,000 or 



48 CHANGB OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

nine-tenths of the human race. Within this isothermal or human 
zodiac or zone is an axis indicating tho central or life line of this 
zodiac around the globe. Starting from the Orient, in Hindos- 
tan, near Bombay, it passes northward through Persia, Arabia, 
the Mediterranean, France, England, thence to New York, Pitts- 
burg, St. Louis, and on to the Pacific Ocean. 

"It is along this axis of the isothermal temperate zone of the 
northern hemisphere that revealed civilization makes the circuit 
of the globe. Here the continents expand — the oceans contract. 
This zone contains the zodiac of empires. Along its axis, at 
distances scarcely varying one hundred leagues, appear the 
great cities of the world, from Pekin, in China, to St. Louis, in 
America. During antiquity this zodiac was narrow ; it never 
expanded beyond the north African shore, nor beyond the Bontic 
Sea, the Danube, and the Bhine. Along this narrow belt civili- 
zation planted its system, from oriental Asia to the western 
extremity of Europe, with more or less perfect development. 
Modern times have recently seen it widen to embrace the region 
of the Baltic Sea. In America it starts with the broad front from 
Cuba to Hudson's Bay. As in all previous times, it advances 
along a line central to these extremes in the densest form and 
with the greatest celerity. Here are the chief cities of intelli- 
gence and power — the greatest intensity of energy and progress. 

" Science has recently very perfectly established by observation 
this axis of the isothermal temperate zone. It reveals to the 
world this shining fact, that along it civilization has traveled, as 
by an inevitable instinct of nature, since creation's dawn. From 
this line has radiated intelligence of mind to the North and to 
the South, and towards it all people have struggled to converge. 
Thus, in harmony with the supreme order of nature, is the mind 
of man instinctively adjusted to the revolutions of the sun and 
tempered by its heat." 

No relation of man to mother earth is more interesting 
than this fact of his essential alliance to this zone by instinct, as 
it were, and thus guided on his journey around the planet. 

"When we trace the axis of this zone, as thousands of years of 
history have indicated it by temperature and population, encir- 
cling the earth like a great magnetic chord, we conceive that 
when it passes over our continent, like the electric wire that is 
hung in the fork of the tree, so does this great axis, in passing 
our continent, find lodgment in the forks of our great rivers, 
thus passing within the shadow of our city, and, as with an 
enchanter's wand, by its touch awakes St. Louis to an imperial 
greatness and destiny. 



THE POPULATION ARGUMENT. 



The population argument is one of the most interesting 
features of this subject, and the one upon which everything else 
depends. In 1790, or about the time of the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, we had a population of 3,929,827, which 
was a little more than the present population of the State of 
New York. But we have grown up since then, and within the 
lifetime of a human being, to a population of 31,443,322, and 
will at the census of 1870 be increased to more than 40,000 f 000. 
The population of the United States in 1850 was 23,191,876, 
which in ten years, or by the time of the taking of the census 
in 1860, had increased 35.52 per cent. 

The increase of the population of the Northwest during the 
last ten years has been 67. 9 per cent., while the ratio of 
increase in the whole country has been 35.52. The population 
of the Northwest, by the census of 1860, was 28.85 per cent, 
nearly one-third. Of the total increase in the population of 
the country, 44.67 per cent, was in the Northwest alone. An 
increase at the same ratio during the present decade will give 
the Northwest in 1870 a population of 15,212,622 — an increase 
of 6,139,567. Massachusetts, the most densely populated of all 
the States, has 157.8 inhabitants to the square mile. A like 
density of population in the Northwest would give us a popula- 
tion of 133,011,198. A density of population equal to that of 
England (230 per square mile) would give an enumeration of 
279,846,120. 

The popular vote of 1852 is copied from the census compen- 
dium (1850), p. 50; that of 1860, from the census returns. 
Under the old apportionment (1850), the Northwest had 24.31 
per cent, of the members of the House of Eepresentatives, or a 
fraction less than one-fourth. Under the census of 1860, she is 



50 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

entitled to 30.47 per cent., or nearly one-third. At the Presi- 
dential election of 1852, the Northwest cast 29.46 per cent, of 
the popular vote. In the Presidential election of 1860, she cast 
36.24 per cent, of the popular vote — more than one-third. In 
the electoral college in I860, the Northwest cast 23.14 per cent, 
of the vote for President and Yice President. 

The following table shows the standing of the loyal States in 
respect to political power in 1852 and 1860 : 

1852. 1860. 

Popular vote for President 2,583,918 3,805,640 

Electoral votes 205 

Under the new census 210 

In 1852, the Northwest cast 35.68 per cent, of the popular 
vote for President in the loyal States, and 34.63 per cent, of the 
electoral vote. In 1860, she cast 44.4 per cent of the popular 
vote, and in 1864 had 40.63 per cent, of the votes of the loyal 
States in the electoral college. 

In England, the density of population is about 230 persons to 
the square mile; but England is in some measure the work- 
shop of the world, and supports by her foreign trade a greater 
population than her soil can nourish. In France, the density of 
population is about 160 to the square mile. In Germany, it 
varies from 100 to 200. 

Assuming, on these grounds, that the number of persons 
which a square mile can properly sustain in our rich country, 
without generating the presence of a redundant population, is 
490 (the number authorized by a writer in the Britannica 
Encyclopedia), this would, when the country is fully developed, 
give to the Atlantic slope a population of 219,970,310, and to 
the Talley States a population of 761,302,530, and to the Pacific 
slope a population of 483,754,460, and to the whole country a 
total population of 1,465,027,400 — a body of people infinitely 
beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Even the half 
of this number of inhabitants would make us the greatest nation 
that ever ruled on earth. 

The estimate above gives us a population greater than the 
entire present population of the world. But the grandeur of 
the thought still swells when we consider that in a little more 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 51 

than a century, or beginning with a new era, our numbers will 
well nigh approximate this great growth. 

The extraordinary tendency of population to this country 
from the over-populous regions of Europe overrides all theories 
of a systematic increase of our population for the present time. 
Yet another census will give the Mississippi "Valley a prepon- 
derance of population over the Atlantic slope, and more than 
double that of the Pacific slope in ten years. But from the 
extraordinary increase of population which our growing country 
has sustained, we find ample hope for our population to reach 
that of multiplied millions, by the systematic and philosophical 
theory of Malthus, the great father of political economy, which 
no credible writer has controverted. He laid down as a law 
for human increase that the productive powers of healthy, well- 
fed, well-lodged, and well-clothed human beings was naturally 
so great that fully two children will be born for every person 
who will die within a given time ; and George Combe, comment- 
ing upon this theory of Malthus, said that population would 
double itself every twenty -five years. He added that this increase 
took place in the new States of North America, independent of 
immigration. Then, taking the Malthnsian doctrine for our guide, 
we would have at least 100,000,000 inhabitants in the United 
States at the close of this century. But, with the aid of immi- 
gration, that number will be reached before the close of the 
century. 

Contemplating this vast increase, with its density, in the Mis- 
sissippi Yalley, who is so blind as not to be able to see that it is 
the right of the wealthy and powerful to possess the seat of gov- 
ernment ? This subject of population throws the argument more 
especially in favor of St. Louis when we consider that the dis- 
tribution of population will not be uniform over the country, 
but will be much denser along the rivers and lakes where com- 
mercial, agricultural, and mechanical pursuits go hand in hand. 
The history of mankind, all over the earth, shows the dense 
population to be gathered along the maritime shores. Look to 
the Babylonians, the Tyreans and Sidonians, the Carthagenians, 
the Levantes, the Bomans. Look to modern Europe — England 
and France. Such will be the truth in our own land. Between 
the east line of Kansas and the Bocky Mountains will never be 



52 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

a dense population, for the country is not adapted to a variety 
of industrial pursuits, such as can be prosecuted with profit. 
That portion of our domain will be the great Ameiican pasture, 
and will be devoted to stock-growing as the chief pursuit, and 
therefore will not, cannot, be densely populated. This will give 
the preponderance of population to the Mississippi river and 
her tributaries, and counterbalance the disproportion of geo- 
graphical position, and more than make up with population for 
St. Louis what she loses by geography, thereby rendering her 
position the most favorable. 

Illinois and Missouri will not only soon become the two great 
and powerful States of the Mississippi Yalley, but also of the 
nation ; and with their rich soils, their valuable minerals, their 
timbers, their water-powers and navigable advantages, in short 
their supreme advantages for all the industrial pursuits of 
civilized life, they are destined to support a greater number of 
American citizens to the square mile than any other States of 
the Union ; and St. Louis will, in her future growth, extend her 
limits to Alton, Collinsville, Belleville, Jefferson Barracks, 
Kirkwood, and, in another century, be a city of 10,000,000 
inhabitants. Such is American progress, and such is American 
destiny. 

The future reveals nothing but greatness — nothing but that 
onward progress and greatness which is everywhere seen and 
felt to be approaching. Lot us all anticipate it and be energized 
by the thought that multiplied millions of wiser and better 
people than we are soon to take our places and move on in the 
great caravan of life, as Divine law will direct. 



THE COMMERCIAL ARGUMENT. 



There can he no mistake about St. Louis occupying the most 
favorable commercial position of any inland city in the Missis- 
sippi Yalley. It was no mere fancy of Pierre Laclede Liguest 
that caused him to select this favorable position for a great city ; 
in fact, there seemed to be a kind of instinct that pointed the 
early French pioneers to the most favorable town sites in the 
great "West. At the time when the seat of government was 
located at its present place, it will be remembered that where 
St. Louis now stands did not belong to the United States, nor 
did a single foot of land west of the Mississippi river, and at 
that time St. Louis was only a trading post or village of about 
one thousand inhabitants. It was founded on the 15th day of 
February, 1784. 

The first item of importance to St. Louis, as a gi-eat commer- 
cial city, is its location, standing as it does on the great Missis- 
sippi river, upon whose waters now does and forever will float 
the greatest inland j commerce in the world. It commands the 
trade of 10,000 miles of the most valuable river navigation on 
the continent, and is the only city of importance on the Western 
waters where steamboats come to discharge their freights and 
reload and return. It is essentially a distributing port. ~No 
boats of any value pass its harbor. To its 10,000 miles of river 
navigation let us add 10,000 miles of railway communication; 
then let us go forward but a year or two to that commercial 
triumph of the West, when her trade, true to a law of nature, 
will follow the great waters of the gulf as surety as the waters 
themselves find their way there ; then with the 10,000 miles of 
river navigation and 10,000 miles of railway communication, and 
with these rivers and railways bringing a rich commerce from 
other lands and from all over the continent, who will not look 



54 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

with delight to St. Louis as destined to be the great city of the 
Mississippi Yalley — the great inland depot of the continent ? 

Touching the commercial importance of St. Louis, it is well 
that we look beyond and see what shape the commerce and 
industry of the country will take. 

At this time there is a continental strife for commercial 
supremacy inaugurated between the Atlantic cities and the 
people of the West. The contest is for the purpose of deter- 
mining whether the trade of the West shall go across the 
continent to the Atlantic cities, or whether it will go down the 
Mississippi river and her tributaries to the Gulf, and from 
thence to the markets of the world. In this contest the West 
will triumph and her products follow the water courses. The 
question will be settled in the next three years. 

Following this contest will come that long-anticipated change, 
or at least the time for it, when a railway is completed to the 
Pacific Ocean, and we look for our trade with China and India 
to find its way to us through different channels. In this matter 
the people have no doubt over-estimated the importance and 
magnitude of that great continental change in our foreign com- 
merce. It is true the completion of those great railways will 
be a wonderful triumph of American industry; but their com- 
pletion will not bring such a change and such an era in our 
continental development as many have anticipated. On the 
other hand, the great commercial and civil era to which we are 
approaching will come, with our industrial and commercial ten- 
dency, to the tropics of our own hemisphere. In industry the 
destiny of this people is a continental conquest. Nothing but 
wild and foolish extravagance and impracticability will lead our 
people over distant oceans to distant lands for products, when 
we have at home all the climates, all the soils, and all the 
advantages that the globe can afford. ]S or will the American 
people act so foolishly. It is not in their experience to do so. 
They will do otherwise. Already there is a great trade in the 
tropics, which our people can easily command if they do but 
make the proper use of the means within their reach. 

The following remarks of Judge Burwell, of New Orleans, 
taken from a speech of his before the St. Louis Board of Trade, 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 55 

Monday, October 19, 1868, are full instruction upon the trade 
of some ports of the tropics, and should have great weight in 
influencing the people of the West in their commercial action : 

A COMMEECIAL POLICY FOE THE AMERICAN CON- 
TINENT. 

But those who will examine the present trade relations 
between the United States and Territories referred to will find 
very many expensive and vexatious impediments and charges 
that should be and may be removed by a proper exercise of 
diplomatic influence. 

It is impossible to part from this subject without calling to 
your attention the importance of the Cuban trade and the sin- 
gular facilities which exist for securing it to the United States. 
It is not the province of a commercial discourse to provide for or 
even propose the acquisition of the Island of Cuba, but it may 
be reasonably expected that all the impediments to a direct 
commercial intercourse will be removed. 

There is no reason why a reciprocity treaty may not as well 
be made in regard to Cuba as Canada. But supposing all trade 
impediments removed, how attractive the commercial pros- 
pect ? Cuba produced last year $259,000,000 value ; of this, 
perhaps, thirty millions dollars in sugar, coffee, and other 
products have been imported into the Western States and 
Territories. Cuba consumed, perhaps, 500,000 barrels of foreign 
flour, besides other provisions, and this could be supplied by the 
Western States and Territories. Already Havana is within less 
than one hundred hours of St. Louis and Chicago b}' steamer 
and rail. This time could be reduced considerably. But with 
the removal of all impediments to a free interchange of com- 
modities between these great and reciprocating interests, how 
extensive and how precious must be the commerce. A similar 
estimate may be made in regard to the trade between New 
Orleans, Yera Cruz, and other Gulf ports. The Isthmus of 
Panama, however, presents the most attractive prospect of 
gathering an immediate harvest. Last year there crossed the 
Panama Railroad more than one hundred and fifty thousand 
tons of freight, with some thirty thousand passengers and per- 
haps thirty millions of the precious metals. While much of 
these last items will be, of course, diverted to the Pacific rail- 
road, there will be always an important value of commerce 
crossing at that point. Take, then, what we will estimate the 
proportion due to the Yalley of the Mississippi and of the 
lakes, it will be seen that this portion can be readily taken 



56 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

direct from Panama to Chicago and St. Louis by way of New 
Orleans. The distance from Panama to New York is 2,300 
miles, or ten days of gulf and ocean voyage, with its propor- 
tionate insurance. The distance from Panama to New Orleans 
is 1,700 miles, or about seven and a half days, with insurance in 
proportion. From New York to Chicago is about 950 miles 
rail, to St. Louis is about 1,200 miles all rail ; from New Orleans 
to Chicago, all rail, will be about 950 miles, and from New 
Orleans to St. Louis something less. These are approximate 
and not exact distances ; but they show that a passenger or a 
package at Panama, destined for either Chicago or St. Louis, 
could reach Chicago in some three days' less time by way of 
New Orleans than by way of New York, and would reach St. 
Louis with still less time and distance. These sketches are but 
suggestive, for it is impossible to go into the details of a subject 
so extensive. 

But do they not all point to the importance of an organiza- 
tion of the interests concerned in this great commerce ? Do 
they not justify these interests in making a combined demand 
on Congress to view with equal favor the inboard line of ti-ans- 
portation and its outlet, as the coast line of the Atlantic or 
Pacific ? If Congress gives aid to steam lines from New York 
to Eio, or to Vera Cruz, or to Havana, or Panama, or from San 
Francisco to China, should it not, in common justice, aid steam 
lines from New Orleans to the Gulf and Atlantic ports, and even 
to those of Europe? 

But to organize this trade will require certain combinations 
between the river and ocean steamers. A first-class ocean 
steamer for the Eio trade will cost $100,000. She will carry out 
nine thousand five hundred barrels, and bring back fifteen thou- 
sand sacks of coffee. The voyage, out and in, from New Orleans 
may occupy about seventy-five days — equal to about five trips 
a year. Now, if the lake and river cities will take joint stock 
in such aline of steamers, and run their railroads, steamboats and 
barges in close connection with them — prorating for distances, 
signing through, and consigning to each other without other 
than actual charges, it is perfectly plain that each line must load 
the other, and that the whole freights thus apportioned will sup- 
port these lines as they do those which now conduct it. This 
enterprise is equally as applicable to the communication between 
Chicago and St. Louis, and Havana, Yera Cruz and Panama, as 
with Bio. Develop a continental market for American pro- 
ducts. To impress on a commercial audience the immense 
importance of requiring Western members of Congress, without 
respect to politics, to demand of the existing and future admin- 
istrations the removal of these obstacles to our trade, it may be 
proper to remind them of its extreme value. The general trade 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 57 

of tho continent and islands south of the United States was 
estimated ten years ago at $500,000,000. It comprises many 
products not cultivated elsewhere than at or near the tropics. 
It brings to Western millions products desired by civilized man. 
It affords woods for use and ornament ; drugs for our climatic 
diseases. In return ; this market demands a very large supply of 
Western provisions. Now, when we regard the immense devel- 
opment of European productions by the same means of artificial 
transportation with our own — when we note the transfer of a 
productive force by immigration from Europe to America, it is 
obvious that the grain and other productions of the Ukraine, the 
Don, and 1he Danube, will be poured in increased volume into 
the consuming markets of Europe. This form of consumption 
will react, no doubt, upon the abundant provision supply, and 
perhaps, except in seasons of famine or low wages, consume 
about all that can be imported from other countries. But the 
United States lies near the whole of our southern continent, and 
it can deliver its provision crops, with proper facilities, at a 
cheaper rate than the European farmer, who must cross four 
thousand miles of intervening ocean. Why, then, should not 
some statesman of the West, emulating the example and per- 
petuating the ideas of your own great Benton, take up this sub- 
ject and consummate the great exchange of Western provisions 
for tropical products. It is a work worthy the ambition of a 
patriot, and the prosperity which would follow would raise his 
renown above the grade of military glory or the successful 
diplomacy of the most astute politician. Let me, then, give an 
example of the trade which might be advantageously opened 
with Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico. Congress has committed the 
guardianship of commerce and finance to the city of New York, or 
rather that great city has secured, by her energy and enterprise, 
the stewardship of the Union. She has now postal subventions 
to Rio, Havana, Panama, Vera Cruz, as the Pacific city of San 
Francisco has to China. The Government now pays a line of 
steamers, running between New York and Bio, $150,000 for 
twelve round trips per annum. Every practical merchant will 
eee what immense aid this must afford this line in any contest 
for the Bio trade. Now, if Congress will divide this subvention, 
or give as much to a similar line between New Orleans and 
Bio, or, indeed, suspend any appropriation to either, it is 
very obvious that a line from New Orleans, running in con- 
nection with our river vessels, must possess great advantages,. 
as far as St. Louis and Chicago are concerned. It is obvious 
that the voyage between Rio and New Orleans is not longer 
than between New York and Bio. Now, a cargo of flour being 
at St. Louis can surely be shipped at less cost by the river to New 
Orleans than by rail to New York ; and a cargo of coffee 
4 



58 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

imported can undoubtedly be brought cheaper in return. For 
the first time, perhaps, this great inboard line of river and rail 
communication between the South and North is prepared to 
compete with the coastwise route. Will it not promote the 
interests of the West to pay its freights for this transportation 
to its own railroad, steamboat and barge companies, rather than 
to coastwise shipping and coast-route lines owned and operated 
elsewhere ? 

The people of St. Louis and the West must learn that next 
in importance to the Mississippi river is a railway through the 
Southwest to Galveston, thus making a great trunk line from 
Chicago via St. Louis to the Gulf, and uniting the Gulf and the 
lakes at a distance of about 1,000 miles, and St. Louis to the- 
Gulf at a distance of about 700 miles. Akin to this road in 
importance will be another from Denver City into Mexico. By 
these means will be won a commerce from the tropics and South 
America surpassing tbe distant trade of the Orient. With all 
these future developments of our continental and foreign trade, 
St. Louis will still remain the central city and commercial depot 
of the country; and with the minerals and coal of Missouri and 
Illinois, the timber and the water, the great workshops of the 
country will be hers. 

The following article upon South American commerce, from 
the American Gazette, published at Philadelphia, is also inte- 
resting to the subject : 

In the last five years the tonnage of the United States shipping 
has fallen from 6,000,000 tons to 3,300,000. In the same period 
the foreign shipping trade to the United States has increased 
from 2,600,000 to 4,500,000 tons. The increase has been mainly 
British. The decrease has been exclusively American. We do 
not cite the facts as a discouragement, but as an incentive. 
They show, if anything can show, how important it is that 
effectual measures should be immediately undertaken to restore 
to us that prosperity in this important field that once belonged 
to us. 

Foremost among the opportunities of the moment for creating 
this restoration is the opening of the navigation of the Amazon 
to the flags of all nations. In this estimate we by no means 
overlook the advantages immediately and prospectively accruing 
from closer commercial relations with China, Japan, and West : 
ern South America, and from the increased whaling, fishing, and 
lumber business of the Northern Pacific. They have their sev- 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 59 

era! places, and very important they are too. But the facilities 
for business given by the opening of the Amazon may, if imme- 
diately and wisely improved, go as far as any in enlarging our 
mercantile marine until it swells beyond its furthest limits. The 
Amazon was opened by Brazil on the 7th of September, and all 
of its tributaries — the Tocantins and the San Francisco — are 
free for direct trade to all countries. Now Brazil is one of the 
largest empires in the world. It is twelve times as large as 
France, and comprehends a surface of 2,700,000 square miles, 
with a seacoast of more than 4,000 miles ; borders on nearly all 
the States of South. America, as well as on the British, French, 
and Dutch possessions, and its river system is equal and in some 
respects superior to that of this country. The country is thinly 
populated, and only about half civilized in the interior, from 
which it may be calculated how great a field for trade is opened, 
and how rapidly civilization and business will follow a wise, 
liberal, and energetic cultivation of our commercial relations 
there. We may treble our trade in three years. 

For hundreds of years the Amazon, navigable for nearly four 
thousand miles through the heart of Brazil, has been closed to 
foreigners. Fewer vessels pass between any two points on it in 
a year than run from St. Louis to New Orleans in a month. The 
tides of the Atlantic, into which it flows through an embouchure 
186 miles across, are felt 400 miles from its mouth, where the 
water is twenty fathoms deep and the river more than a mile 
wide. Its banks and the interior on either side produce maize, 
rice, coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, spices, timber, medicinal 
plants, cattle, gold, iron, and lead. Bolivia opened the tributa- 
ries to the Amazon from her territory to all countries in 1853. 
Brazil neutralized the uses of this concession by closing the 
Amazon, through which alone the Bolivian streams could be 
reached. Now, however, this is changed, and the Bolivian 
concession may be improved. The Tocantins, a tributary to the 
Amazon, is 1,200 miles long. It threads very fertile countries, 
but is not continuously navigable, owing to falls. It is opened 
by decree, however, to Cameta, with 40,000 inhabitants, and 
from Madeira to Manaos, provinces rather than cities. The San 
Francisco, the other river recently opened, is about 1,300 miles 
long, but, owing to obstructions, cannot be navigated any higher 
than Penedo. At intervals it is navigable beyond for 200 miles 
together. The current will carry vessels 100 miles in twenty- 
four hours. Gold is among its deposits. Nitrate of soda is 
found on its banks ; and in one spot, a valley sixteen leagues 
broad and twenty long, it is found on the surface, and every- 
where is procurable with little labor. The article is so valuable 
as a fertilizer that our demand for it might alone maintain a 
large commerce. 



CO CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Whatever advantages are to be gained from, the opening of 
these rivers should inure to our commerce. The winds and cur- 
rents are so much in our favor that a chip thrown into the 
Atlantic at the mouth of the Amazon would float by Hatteras, 
in the very line of navigation ; and our Atlantic ports of Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, and ]S"ew York, are natural half-way houses 
between Para and Europe. What we need is the prudent enter- 
prise to improve this opening. Had it occurred in 1853, or at 
any subsequent day to the rebellion, our flag would already 
have been there, and our exchanges would have been made along 
the whole banks of the streams. But now we hesitate. Thus 
far we are aware of nothing that has been done. As such 
advantages cannot long lie idle, we look to an early moment 
when they will be seized, and another aid given thus to that 
renewed maritime activity that should date from this year. If 
the opportunities afforded in Eastern Asia, in the I^orthern 
Pacific, on both coasts of South America, and now into the very 
heart of that part of the hemisphere, are not mirrored in a 
rapid commercial improvement, we shall begin to believe that 
the nature of our people has changed, and that they are at last 
unable to see or unwilling to improve occasions of the greatest 
value. 

These two preceding statements show to the American people 
a field of commerce more inviting, at our own doors, than can 
be found far away in the Orient ; and every consideration of our 
industry and commerce demands that no opportunity be lost in 
establishing the most liberal governmental policy by which to 
secure it. 

By cultivating that rich trade of the Southern countries, the 
Atlantic sea-board cities, and those of the Gulf, will gain back 
more in value than they will lose of the Orient trade after the 
completion of the Pacific Eailway. 



THE POLITICAL ARGUMENT. 



There is still another way by which we can demonstrate the 
growth and preponderance of power in the West over the old 
federal arrangement of the Government. It is by showing the 
approaching supremacy of political power in the union of the 
Yalley States with those of * the Pacific slope. The Atlantic 
slope has an area of 423,197 square miles, which is divided 
into seventeen States. Under the Constitution they are allowed 
34 Senators and 120 Representatives in the National Legislature. 
The Mississippi Yalley has an area of 1,899,811 square miles, 
with less than one-third of its territory made into States. It 
now has eighteen States, which under the Federal Constitution 
are allowed 36 Senators and 115 Representatives in the National 
Legislature. The Pacific slope has an area of 627,256 square 
miles, part of which is made into three States, which are entitled 
to sis Senators and five Eepresentatives in the National Legisla- 
ture. Alaska has an area of 577,390 square miles, and is large 
enough to make more than fourteen States as large as Ohio. 
Another view of our country shows 860,000 square miles east of 
the Mississippi river, which is already divided into twenty-seven 
States, including Louisiana and West Virginia. These send 54 
Senators and 205 Eepresentatives to the National Legislature. 
West of the Mississippi river we have 2,070,000 square miles, 
exclusive of Alaska, which at the least calculation ought to be 
made into fifty new States, each one of them being larger than 
Ohio and containing 40,000 square miles. 

By these figures it is easy to be seen that the great prepon- 
derance of political power will soon be far removed from the 
Atlantic slope. 

It is safe to say that the census returns of 1870 will show the 
Mississippi Yalley to more than double the Atlantic slope in 



62 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

many departments of the national wealth of the country, and 
therefore compel the preponderance of taxation west of the 
Alleghany mountains. Already, by the census of 1860, the cash 
value of farms in the Mississippi Yaliey, the value of farming 
implements, the value of live stock, and the value of animals 
slaughtered, was far in advance of the Atlantic slope. Not only 
will the gi-eater portion of the taxes to support the Government 
come from the West, but also will the popular vote of the 
country be far greater in the Mississippi Valley; and thus in 
every way the political power of the Republic will soon be found 
far away from the present seat of government. Nothing is more 
certain than this ; and who is so foolish as not to be able to 
comprehend that political power will not, when backed by the 
wealth, the genius, and the preponderating millions of American 
citizens, demand that the seat of government shall come to the 
Mississippi Valley ? Even now the preponderance of power is 
in the hands of the West, and her people have made up their 
minds to ask for its removal before another Presidential term 
expires. 

Aside from numerical numbers and territorial extent, the 
cohesive power of nationality demands that the ruling power of 
a nation be located in the midst of its material power. The life 
of a nation is made doubly secure when united with the strong- 
est and greatest commercial and material interests of its people ; 
for thus united they become a complement in purpose and des- 
tiny — the security and perpetuity of the one becomes the 
security for the perpetuity of the other. Philosophy is alike 
applicable in the institutions of men as in the works of nature, 
and nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that the life 
and perpetuity of this Republic is as secure for the future, with 
the seat of government at Washington — a distant place on the 
outskirts of the country, with no material power or commercial 
prestige — as it would be at a central position in the Mississippi 
Valley, where the great vitalizing heart of the Republic beats in 
keeping with its onward march of progress and greatness. 



THE CONCLUSIVE ARGUMENT. 



Perhaps the reader of this little pamphlet, if his mind was 
not already favorable to its cause, will be satisfied of its justness 
before he reaches this conclusive argument. If not, I only ask 
his further consideration of the matter, and then demand of him 
an impartial decision. 

The statement of the Old Government and the map show 
that the location of the Capital of the Nation by the first 
Congress, in 1790, was an act totally supported by local and 
incidental circumstances, belonging wholly to that period, and 
not of any value whatever at the present time. 

The map and statement of the .New Eepublic show, in the 
most clear and conclusive manner, the existence of entire 
different incidents and circumstances at the present time, and 
that the circumstances and incidents demand a change of 
national empire, or the removal of the seat of government to 
the Yalley of the Mississippi. 

I have shown the wonderful growth of the nation, in terri- 
torial extent and material power, since the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, to be essentially beyond the limits of tha 
thirteen States of the Old Government, and far away to the 
Mississippi Eiver and the Pacific Ocean. I have endeavored to 
show that that growth, with its transfer of matei'ial power to 
the Valley States, creates, by means of our geographical expan- 
sion, our immense increase of population, our vast internal aDd 
Western commerce, and our political power, a demand for the 
removal of the seat of government to the Mississippi Yalley. 

But, in a further and more conclusive consideration of the 
subject, the attention of the reader is asked to more evidence 
of the material growth and vastness of the Eepublic. To begin 
the submission of that evidence, the following table is offered 
as a basis : 



64 



GHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



Historical and statistical table of the United States of North 

America. 

[Note.— The whole area of the United States, including water surface of lakes and 
rivers, is nearly equal to four million square miles, embracing the Russian purchase.] 



The thirteen original States. 



Area in 
square miles. 



*Population, 
1S60. 



New Hampshire 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia — East and West 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 



9,260 


326,073 


7,800 


1,231,060 


1,306 


174,620 


4,750 


460,147 


47,000 


3,880,735' 


8,320 


672,035 


46,000 


2,906,11"! 


2,120 


112,216 


11,124 


687,049 


61,352 


1,596,318 


50,704 


992,622 


34,000 


703,708 


58,000 


1,057,2S6- 



States admitted. 



Kentucky 

Vermont 

Tennessee 

Ohio Ord'ce of 

Louisiana March 3, 

Indiana May 7 , 

Mississippi April 

Illinois Feb. 

Alabama; March 

Maine ! 

Missouri June 4, 

Arkansas March 2, 

Michigan Jan. 11, 

Florida March 30, 

Iowa June 12, 

Texas 



Wisconsin 

California 

Minnesota .... 

Oregon 

Kansas 

West Virginia 

Nevada .March 2, 



. I April 20, 

.March 3, 
. Aug. 14, 
. May 30, 



Colorado Feb. 28,1861 12 

Nebraska May 30, 1854 10 




1861 12 



§6,857 

110,507 

§34,277 

2,261 

28,841 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



65 





Acts organ- 
izing Ter- 
ritories. 


U.S. 
Statutes. 


CO 
C* 


*Population. 




o 


o 
to 


New Mexico 

Utah 


Sept. 9,1850 
do 


9 
9 
10 
12 
12 
12 
13 


446 
453 
172 
239 
664 
808 
85 


121,201 

1T88,056 

69,994 

240,597 

**113,916 

90,932 

143,776 

68,991 

) 10 miles 

i square. 

577,390 


The estimated 
population of 




March 2, 1853 
March 2, 1861 
Feb. 24, 1863 
March 3, 1863 
May 26, 1864 


Dakota 


tories on Jan. 




above indica- 
ted, was 360,- 
000. 




July 16, 1790 
March 3, 1791 


1 
1 


130 
214 




***N. Western America, purchased 
by treaty of May 28, 1807 


70,000 






1 





*The total population of the United States in 1860 was, in round numbers, 31,500,000. 
In 1865 it is estimated that the population was 35,500,000, including the inhabitants of 
the Territories, estimated at 360,000 persons on January 1, 1865. At the present time, 
November 1, 1867, according to the most satisfactory estimate, it is about 38,500,000. 
In 1870, according to existing ratios, the population of this country will be over 
42,250,000. At the end of the present century, 107,000,000 . 

fThe area of those States marked with a star is derived from geographical authori- 
ties, the public surveys not having been completely extended over them. 

JThe present area of Nevada is 112,090 square miles, enlarged by adding one degree 
of longitude lying between the 37th and 42d degrees of north latitude, which was 
detached from the west part of Utah and also northwestern part of Arizona Territory, 
per act of Congress, approved May 5, 1866; U. S. Laws 1865 and 1866, page 43, and as 
assented to by the legislature of the State of Nevada, January 18, 1867. 

§ White pei'sons. 

|| Indians. 

IT The present area of Utah is SS, 056 square miles, reduced from the former area of 
106,382 square, miles by incorporating one degree of longitude on the west side, between 
the 37th and 42d degrees of north latitude, with the State of Nevada, per act of Con- 
gress, approved May 5, 1866, and as accepted by the legislature of Nevada, Jan. 18, 1S67. 

**The present area of Arizona is 113,916 square miles, reduced from the former area 
of 126,141 square miles by an act of Congress, approved May 5, 1S66, detaching from, 
the. northwestern part of Arizona a tract of laud equal to 12,225 square miles, and 
adding it to the State of Nevada U. S. Laws 1S65 and 1866, page 43. 

Nevada. — Enabling act approved March 21, 1864; Statutes, volume 13, page 30. Duly 
admitted into the Union. President's proclamation No. 22, dated October 31, 1864. 
Statutes, volume 13, page 749. 

Colorado. — Enabling act approved March 21, 1864; Statutes, volume 13, page 32. 
Not yet admitted. - 

Nebraska — Enabling act approved xYpril 19, 1864; Statutes, volume 13, page 47. 
Duly admitted into the Union. See President's proclamation No. 9, dated March 1, 
1867. U S. Laws 1866 and 1857, page 4. 

That portion of the District of Columbia south of the PotomaG river was retroceded 
to Virginia July 9, 1848. Statutes, volume 9, page 35. 

*** Bound auies. — Commencing at 54° 40', north latitude, ascending Portland channel 
to the mountains/, following then' summits to the 141° west longitude; thence north, 
on this line, to the Arctic ocean, forming the eastern boundary. Starting from the 
Arctic ocean west, the line descends Behring's strait, between the two islands of 
Krusenstern and Ratmanoff, to the parallel of 65° 30', and proceeds due north without 
limitation into the same Arctic ocean. Beginning again at the same initial point, on 
the parallel of 65 ? 30', thence in a course southwest through Behring's strait, between 
the island of St. Lawrence and Cape Choukotski, to the 172° degree west longitude? 
and thence southwesterly through Behring's sea, between the island ot Attou and 
Copper, to the meridian of 193° west longitude; leaving the prolonged group of the 
Aleutian islands in the possessions now transferred to the United States, and making 
the western boundary of our country the dividing line between Asia and America. 

The above table shows but a small portion of the present 
domain to have been represented in the first Congress of the 
United States. 



66 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



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68 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

However considerable the figures may be, the preceding table 
shows that one-half our vast domain is not yet half surveyed, 
much less clothed with population, industry, wealth, and politi- 
cal power. These must come as the result of our national 
growth. 

Since 1860 no part of our country has been growing so fast 
as that territorial portion which comprehends the mineral 
region ; and, with the additional aid of the railway, the trade 
beyond the Mississippi has more than doubled in ten years, and 
in every direction Westward goes the American citizen in search 
of fame and fortune, and involuntarily adding to the greatness 
of the nation. 

Everywhere on American soil or American water is seen the 
vitalizing principle of progress, urgent alike in every field of 
industry and every place of abode. Every new lesson of our 
country is of the great West, and every eulogy of the American 
statesman paints in glowing colors the Westward march of 
empire. 

I have already stated that the internal commerce of the 
United States was greater than the external commerce. Not 
willing to enter thoroughly into the discussion of what may 
justly be termed the philosophy of the trade of the country and 
the influences that localize it, and thereby create commercial: 
centers, I hereby submit certain papers, by J. W. Scott, Esq., for- 
merly of Toledo, Ohio, which appeared in Hunt's Merchants' Mag- 
azine in 1843, 1848, and 1857. Mr. Scott was the editor of the 
Toledo Blade at the time of writing the articles, and, whatever 
else may be said of him, his articles show wonderful ability in the 
discussion of the commercial and material growth of the coun- 
try. And, although in many respects he was mistaken, and the 
country has grown beyond his calculations, still his articles are 
worth reading, and are superior to those produced in any of the 
industrial and commercial magazines of the present time. Tie 
first speaks : 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 69 

TNTEENAL TEADE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Number!. — 1843. 

Almost up to the present time the whole weight of popula- 
tion in the United States has lain along the Atlantic shore, on 
and near its tide waters, and a great proportion of their wealth 
was connected with foreign commerce, carried on through their 
seaports. These being at once the centers of domestic and 
foreign trade, grew rapidly, and constituted all the large towns 
of the country. The inference was thence drawn, that as our 
towns of greatest size were connected with foreign commerce, 
this constituted the chief if not the only source of wealth, and 
that large cities could grow up nowhere but on the shores of 
the salt sea. Such had been the experience of our people, and 
the opinion founded on it has been pertinaciously adhered to, 
notwithstanding the situation of the country in regard to trade 
and commerce has essentially altered. It seems not, until 
lately, to have entered the minds even of well-informed states- 
men that the internal trade of this country has become far 
more extensive, important, and profitable, than its foreign com- 
merce. In what ratio the former exceeds the latter, it is impos- 
sible to state with exactness. We may, however, approximate 
the truth near enough to illustrate our subject. 

The annual production of Massachusetts has been ascertained 
to be of the value 'of $100,000,000. If the industry of the whole 
nation were equally productive, its yearly value would be about 
$2,300,000,000; but, as we know that capital is not so abund- 
antly united with labor in other States, it would be an over- 
estimate to make that State a basis of a calculation for the 
whole country. $1,500,000,000 is probably near the actual 
amount of our yearly earnings. Of this, there may be 
$500,000,000 consumed and used where it is earned, without 
being exchanged. The balance, being $1,000,000,000, constitutes 
the subjects of exchange, and the articles that make up the 
domestic trade and foreign commerce of the United States. 
The value of those which enter into our foreign commerce is, 
on an average, about $100,000,000. The average domestic exports 
of the years 1841 and 1842 is $99,470,900. There will then 
remain $900,000,000, or nine-tenths, for internal trade. Sup- 
posing, then, some of our towns to be adapted only to foreign 
commerce, and others as exclusively fitted for domestic trade; 
the latter, in our country, would have nine times as much busi- 
ness as the former, and should, in consequence, be nine times as 
large. Although we have no great towns that do not, in some 
degree, participate in both foreign and domestic trade, yet we 



70 CHANGE OE NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

have those whose situations particularly adapt them to one or 
the other; and we wish it constantly borne in mind that an 
adaptation to internal trade, other things being equal, is worth 
nine times as much to a town as an adaptation in an equal 
degree to foreign commmerce. It may be said, and with truth, 
that our great seaports have manifest advantages for domestic 
as well as foreign commerce. Since the peace of Europe left 
every nation free to use its own navigation, the trade of our 
Atlantic coast has probably been five times greater than that 
carried on with foreign nations ; as the coasting tonnage has 
exceeded the foreign, and the number of voyages of the former 
can scarcely be less than five to one of the latter. 

Now, what is the extent and quality of that coast, compared 
with the navigable river and the coasts of the North American 
valley ? * From the mouth of the St. Croix to Sandy Hook, 
the soil, though hard and comparatively barren, is so well culti- 
vated as to furnish no inconsiderable amount of products for 
internal trade. In extent, including bays, inlets, and both 
shores and navigable rivers, and excluding the sand beach known 
as Cape Cod, this coast may be estimated at 900 miles. From 
Sandy Hook to Norfolk, including both shores of Delaware and 
Chesapeake bays, and their navigable inlets, and excluding the 
barren shore to Cape May, the coast may be computed at 900 
miles more. And from Norfolk to the Sabine there is a barren 
coast of upwards of 2,000 miles, bordered most of the way by 
a sandy desert extending inland on an average of 80 or 90 
miles. Over this desert must be transported most of the pro- 
duce and merchandise, the transit and exchange of which con- 
stitute the trade of this part of the coast. This barrier of 
nature must lessen its trade at least one-half. It will be a liberal 
allowance to say that 4,000 miles of accessible coast are afforded 
to our vessels by the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Of 
this, only about 2,500 miles, from Passamaquoddy to St. Mary's, 
can be said to have contributed much, until recently, to the 
building of our Atlantic cities. To the trade of this coast, then, 
are we to attribute five-sixths of the growth and business, 
previous to the opening of the Erie canal, of Portland, Salem, 
Boston, Providence, Hew York, Albany, Troy, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, Washington, Eichmond, Norfolk, Charleston, Savan- 
nah, and several other towns of less importance. Perhaps it 
will be said that foreign trade is more profitable, in proportion 
to its amount, than domestic. But is this likely ? "Will not the 
New York merchant be as apt to make a profitable bargain with 
a Carolinian as with an Englishman of Lancashire ? Or, is it 
an advantage to trade to have the wide obstacle of the Atlantic 



* This valley includes the basins of the St. Lawrence, Mississippi and Mobile rivers. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 71 

in its way? Do distance and difficulty, and risk and danger,, 
tend to promote commercial intercourse and profitable trade ? 
If so, the Alieghanies are a singular blessing to the commercial 
men living on their western slope. Some think that it is the 
foreign commerce that brings all the wealth to the country, 
and sets in motion most of the domestic trade. At best, how- 
ever, we can only receive by it imported values, in exchange for 
values exported, and those values must be first created at home. 

With the exception of tobacco, our exports to foreign nations 
are mostly prime necessaries of life, such as minister in the 
highest degree to the comforts of the people who use them. 
Such are breadstuff's, provisions, and cotton-wool, a material 
from which a great part of the clothing of the world is fabri- 
cated. And what do we receive in exchange so calculated to 
enrich us as a nation ? Among other articles imported in 1840 
(we have not before us a later return from the Secretary of the 
Treasury) we received tea and coffee, to the value of (we give 
round numbers) $14,000,000; silks, and silk and' worsted stuffs, 
near $10,250,000; wines and spirits, $3,600,000; lace, $500,000 j 
tobacco, manufactured, $870,000 ; in all, near $30,000,000 out of 
an import of $107,000,000. The dealing in these articles may 
have a tendency to enrich, but surely neither those that con- 
sume, nor those whose labor buys, the articles above specified, 
are enriched. Indeed, if the $300,000,000 of food and materials- 
for clothing, which are sent abroad to pay for such poisons and 
luxuries, are not wholly lost by being so exchanged, it will be 
admitted that we are not greatly enriched by the exchange. 
Let us not be understood as desirous of undervaluing foreign 
trade. "We hope and believe that its greatest blessings and 
triumphs are yet to come. Many of the articles which it brings 
to us add much to our substantial comfort, such as woolen and 
cotton goods, sugar and molasses ; and others, such as iron and 
steel, with most of their manufactures, give much aid to our 
advancing arts. But if these articles were the products of 
domestic industry — if they were produced in the factories of 
Lowell and Dayton, on the plantations of Louisiana, and in the 
furnaces, forges, and workshops of Pennsylvania — why would 
not the dealing in them have the same tendency to enrich as 
now that they are brought from distant countries ? 

A disposition to attribute the rapid increase of wealth in com- 
mercial nations mainly to foreign commerce, is not peculiar to 
our nation or our time; for we find it combated as a popular 
error by distinguished writers on political economy. Mr. Hume, 
in his Essay on Commerce, maintains that the only way in which 
foreign commerce tends to enrich a country is by its presenting 
tempting articles of luxury, and thereby stimulating the industry 



72 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

of those in whom a desire to purchase is thus excited; the aug- 
mented industry of the nation being the only gain. 

Dr. Chalmers says: "Foreign trade is not the creator of 
any economic interest ; it is but the officiating minister of our 
enjoyments. Should we consent to forego those enjoyments, 
then, at the bidding of our will, the whole strength at present 
embarked in the service of procuring them would be transferred 
to other services, to the extension of the home trade ; to the 
enlargement of our national establishments ; to the service of 
defense, or conquest, or scientific research, or Christian philan- 
thropy." Speaking of the foolish purpose in Bonaparte to 
cripple Britain by destroying her foreign trade, and its utter 
failure, he says: "The truth is that the extinction of foreign 
trade in one quarter was almost immediately followed up either 
by the extension of it in another quarter, or by the extension of 
the home trade. Even had every outlet abroad been obstructed, 
then, instead of a transference from one foreign market to 
another, there would just be a universal reflux towards a home 
market that would be extended in precise proportion with 
every successive abridgment which took place in our external 
commerce.'" If these principles are true, and we believe they 
are in accordance with those of every eminent writer on politi- 
cal economy, and if they are important in their application to 
the British isles — small in territory — with extensive districts 
of bai*ren land — surrounded by navigable waters — rich in 
good harbors, and presenting numerous natural obstacles to 
constructions for the promotion of internal commerce ; and, 
moreover, placed at the door of the richest nations of the world — 
with how much greater force do they apply to our country, 
having a territory twenty times as large, unrivaled natural 
means of intercommunication, with few obstacles to their 
indefinite multiplication by the hand of man; a fertility of soil 
not equaled by the whole world; growing within its boundaries 
nearly all the productions of all the climes of the earth, and 
situated 3,000 miles from her nearest commercial neighbor. 

Will it be said that, admitting the chief agency in building up 
great cities to belong to internal industry and trade, it remains 
to be proved that ISTew York and the other great Atlantic cities 
will feel less of the beneficial effects of this agency than Cincin- 
nati and her Western sisters ? It does not appear to us difficult 
to sustain by facts and reasoning the superior claims in this 
respect of our Western towns. It should be borne in mind that 
the North American Valley embraces the climate, soils, and 
minerals, usually found distributed among many nations. From 
the northern shores of the upper lakes, and the highest navigable 
points of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, to the Gulf of 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 78 

Mexico, nearly all the agricultural articles which contribute to 
the enjoyment of civilized man are now, or may be, produced 
in profusion. The North will send to the South grain, flour, 
provisions, including the delicate fish of the lakes, and the fruits 
of a temperate clime, in exchange for the sugar, rice, cotton, 
tobacco, and the fruits of the warm South. These are but a few 
of the articles, the produce of the soil, which will be the subjects 
of commerce in this valley. Of mineral productions, which, 
at no distant day, will tend to swell the tide of internal com- 
merce, it will suffice to mention coal, iron, salt, lead, lime, and 
marble. Will Boston, or New York, or Baltimore, or New 
Orleans, be the point selected for the interchange of these pro- 
ducts ? Or, shall we choose some convenient central points on 
river and lake for the theaters of these exchanges? Some per- 
sons may be found, perhaps, who will claim this for New 
Orleans ; but the experience of the past, more than the reason 
of the thing, will not bear them out. Cincinnati has now more 
white inhabitants than that outport, although her first street 
was laid out, and her first log house raised, long after New 
Orleans had been known as an important place of trade, and 
had already become a considerable city. 

It is imagined by some that the destiny of this valley has 
fixed it down to the almost exclusive pursuit of agriculture, 
ignorant that, as a general rule in all ages of the world, and in 
all countries, the mouths go to the food, and not the food to the 
mouths. Dr. Chalmers says: "The bulkiness of food forms 
one of those forces in the economic machine which tend to 
equalize the population of every land with the products of its 
own agriculture. It does not restrain disproportion and excess 
in all cases ; but in every large State it will be found that 
wherever an excess obtains, it forms but a very small fraction 
of the whole population. Each trade must have an agricultural 
basis to rest upon; for in every process of industry, the first 
and greatest necessity is, that the workmen shall be fed." A gain : 
" Generally speaking, the excrescent (the population over and 
above that which the country can feed) bears a very minute 
proportion to the natural population of the country; and almost 
nowhere does the commerce of a nation overleap, but by a very 
little way, the basis of its own agriculture." The Atlantic 
States, and particularly those of New England, claim that they 
are to become the seats of the manufactures with which the 
West is to be supplied ; that mechanics, and artisans, and manu- 
facturers, are not to select for their place of business the region 
in which the means of living are most abundant and their 
manufactured articles in greatest demand, but the section which 
is most deficient in those means, and to which their food and 
fuel must, during their lives, be transported hundreds of miles 
5 • 



74 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

and the products of their labor be sent back the same long road 
for a market. 

But this claim is neither sanctioned by reason, authority, nor 
experience. The mere statement exhibits it as unreasonable. 
Dr. Chalmers maintains that the "excrescent" population could 
not, in Britain even, with a free trade in breadstuffs, exceed 
one-tenth of all the inhabitants; and Britain, be it remembered, 
is nearer the granaries of the Baltic than is New England to 
the food-exporting portions of our valley, and she has, also, 
greatly the advantage in the diminished expense of transporta- 
tion. But the Eastern manufacturing States have already 
nearly, if not quite, attained to the maximum ratio of excres- 
cent population, and cannot, therefore, greatly augment their 
manufactures without a correspondent increase in agricultural 
production. 

Most countries, distinguished for manufactures, have laid the 
foundation in a highly improved agriculture. England, the north 
of France, and Belgium, have a more productive husbandry than 
any other region of the same extent. In these same countries 
are also to be found the most efficient and extensive manufac- 
turing establishments of the whole world ; and it is not to be 
doubted that abundance of food was one of the chief causes of 
setting them in motion. How is it that a like cause operating 
here will not produce a like effect ? Have we not, in addition 
to our prolific agriculture, as many and as great natural aids for 
manufacturing as any other country ? Are we deficient in 
water-power? Look at Niagara river, where all the accumu- 
lated waters of the upper St. Lawrence basin fall three hundred 
and thirty -five feet in the distance of a few miles. Ohio, or 
Kentucky, or Western Yirginia, or Michigan, can alone furnish 
durable water-power, far more than sufficint to operate every 
machine in New England. The former State has now for sale 
on her canals more water-power than would be needed for the 
moving of all the factories of New England and New York. 
Indeed, no idea of our Eastern friends is more preposterous than 
the one so hugged by them, that they of all the people of the 
Onion are peculiarly favored with available water-power. We 
remember reading in the North American Review, many years 
ago, in an article devoted to the water-power, and its appropria- 
tion in the neighborhood of Baltimore, that southwardly from 
that city the Atlantic States were destitute of water-power; 
when every well-informed man should know that there is 
not one of those States in which its largest river would not 
furnish more than power sufficient to manufacture every pound 
of cotton raised within its boundaries. The streams of New 
England are short and noisy, not an unfit emblem of her manu- 
facturing pretensions and destiny. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 75 

But if our water-power should be unequal to our manufactur- 
ing exigencies, our beds of coal will not fail us. One of these 
coal formations, having its center not very far from Marietta, 
is estimated by Mr. Mather, geologist, to be of the extent of 
50,000 square miles. He says that in several of the counties of 
Ohio the beds of workable coal are from 20 to 30 feet thick. 
Another coal formation embraces the Wabash Valle}' of Indiana, 
and the Green river country of Kentucky. We know also of 
its existence in abundance at Ottawa and Alton, in the State of 
Illinois, and suppose they are in the same coal basin. Another 
coal basin has been discovered in Michigan, and a fifth on the 
Arkansas river. In some of these coal regions, and probably in 
all, beds of iron ore and other valuable minerals for manufacture 
are abundant. 

Will laborers be wanting? Where food is abundant and 
cheap, there cannot long be a deficiency of laborers. What 
brought our ancestors (with the exception of a few who fled 
from persecution) from the other side of the Atlantic, but the 
greater abundance of the means of subsistence on this side? 
What other cause has so strongly operated in bringing to our 
valley the 10,000,000 or 11,000,000 who now inhabit it? The 
cause continuing, will the effect cease ? While land of unsur- 
passed fertility remains to be purchased, at a low rate, and the 
increase of agriculture in the West keeps down the relative 
price of food ; and while the population of the old countries of 
Europe and the old States of our confederacy is so augmenting 
as to straiten more and more the means of living at home, 
and at the same time the means of removing from one to the 
other are every year rendering it cheaper, easier, and more 
speedy; and while, moreover, the new States, in addition to the 
inducement of cheaper food, now offer a country with facilities 
of intercourse among themselves greatly improved, and with 
institutions, civil, political, and religious, already established 
and flourishing — are farmers, and mechanics, and manufac- 
turers — the young, the active, and the enterprising — no longer 
to be seen pouring into this exuberant valley and marking it 
with the impress of their victorious industry, as in times past ? 

If our readers are satisfied that domestic or internal trade 
must have, the chief agency in building up our great American 
cities, and that the internal trade of the great Western valley 
will be mainly concentrated in the cities situated within its 
bosom, it becomes an interesting subject of inquiry how our 
leading interior city will, at some distant period, say 100 years, 
compare with New York, the Atlantic emporium. For the 
purpose of illustration, let us take Cincinnati as the chief inte- 
rior city. Whether it will actually become such, we design to 
discuss in a separate paper. 



76 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

One hundred years from this time, if our ratio of increase for 
the last 50 j-ears is kept up, our Republic will number, in round 
numbers, 325,000,000— say 300,000 000. Of this number, if we 
allow for the Atlantic slope five times its present population, or 
40,000,000, and to the Oregon country 10,000,000, there will 
remain for our great valley 250,00 ',000. If to these we add 
the 20,000,000 by that time possessed by Canada, we have, for 
our North American valley, 270,000,000. The point, then, will 
be reduced to the plain and easily solved question, whether 
270,000,000 of inhabitants will build up and sustain greater cities 
than 40,000,000. As our valley is in shape more compact than 
the Atlantic slope, it is more favorable to a decided concentra- 
tion ot trade to one point. Whether that point is most likely 
to be Cincinnati, or some rival on the lake border, we propose 
hereafter to consider. 

Let us now see what facilities for internal commerce nature 
has bestowed on the West It will not be denied that, for inter- 
nal trade, the country bordering the Ohio, Mississippi, and other 
rivers admitting steam navigation, are at least as well situated 
as if laved by the waters of an ocean. Cincinnati being at 
present the leading city of oar valley, we propose to connect it 
particularly with our argument, not doubting that other and 
many great towns will grow up on the Western waters. From 
Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, both shores of the Ohio amount to 
more than 900 miles. From Cincinnati to New Orleans, there 
is a river coast of 3,000 miles The upper Mississippi has 1,600 
miles of fertile shore. The shores of that part of the Missouri 
which has been navigated by steamboats amount to near 
4,000 miles. The Arkansas, Red, Illinois, Wabash, Tennessee, 
Cumberland, St. Francis, Wh te, Ouachita, have an extent of 
shore, accessible to steamers, of not less than 8,000 miles. 

Here, then, are fertile shores, to the extent of near 20,000 
miles, which can be visited by steam-vessels a considerable part 
of the year. Taking these streams together, they probably afford 
facilities for trade nearly equal in value to the same number of 
miles of common canals. Who, then, can doubt that in the midst 
of such facilities for trade large cities must grow up, and with a 
rapidity having no example on the Atlantic coast. The growth 
of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, since 1825 ; 
gives us abundant assurances on this point. 

But our interior cities will not depend for their development 
altogether on internal trade. They will partake, in some 
degree, with their Atlantic sisters, of the foreign commerce, 
also ; and if, as some seem to suppose, the profits of commerce 
increase with the distance at whhh it is carried on, and the 
difficulties which nature has thrown in its way, the Western 
towns will have the same advantage over their Eastern rivals in 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



77 



foreign commerce, which some claim for the latter over the 
former in our domestic trade. Cincinnati and her lake rivals 
may use the outports of New Orleans and New York, as Paris 
and Vienna use those of Havre and Trieste ; and it will surely- 
one day come to pass that steamers from Europe will enter our 
great lakes, and be seen booming up the Mississippi. 

To add strength and conclusiveness to the above facts and 
deductions, do our readers ask for examples? They are at hand. 
The first city of which we have any record is Nineveh, situated 
on the Tigris, not less than 700 miles from its mouth. Baby- 
lon, built not long after, was also situated far in the interior, on 
the river Euphrates. Most of the great cities of antiquity, some 
of which were of immense extent, were situated in the interior, 
and chiefly in the vallies of large rivers, meandering through 
rich alluvial territories. Such were Thebes, Memphis, Ptole- 
mais. Of the cities now known as leading centers of commerce, 
a large majority have been built almost exclusively by domestic 
trade. What country has so many great cities as China, a 
country, until lately, nearly destitute of foreign commerce? 

To bring the comparison home to our readers, we have put 
down, side by side, the outports and interior towns of the world 
having each a population of 50,000 and upwards. It should, 
however, be kept in mind that many of the great seaports have 
been built, and are now sustained, mainly by the trade of the 
nations respectively in which they are situated. Even London, 
the greatest mart in the world, is believed to derive much the 
greatest part of the support of its vast population from its 
trade with the United Kingdom. 



OUTPORTS. 

Population. 

London 2.-000,000 

Jeddo (?) 1,300.000 

Calcutta 650,000 

Cons'tinople... 600,000 

St.Pet'sburgh 500,000 

Canton (?) 500.000 

Madras... 450 000 

Naples 350.000 

Dublin 330,000 

New York..-- 320.000 

Lisbon 250,000 

Glasgow 250.000 

Liverpool 250,000 

Philadelphia.. 250.000 

Kio Janeiro... 200.000 

Amsterdam... 200.000 

Bombay 200,000 

Palermo 170.000 

Surat 160,000 



INTERIOR CITIES. 

Population 

Pekin 1,300,000 

Paris 1,000,000 

Benares 600,000 

Hang-tcheou .. 600,000 

Su-tcheou' 600.000 

Macao 500,000 

Nankin 500 000 

Ring-tchiri .... 500 000 
Woo-tchang... 400,000 

Vienna 370,000 

Cairo 350,000 

Patria 320,000 

Nan-tchang ... 300,000 

Khai-fung 300,000 

Pu-tchu 300,000 

Lucknow 300,000 

Moscow 300,000 

Berlin 300,000 

Manchester.... 250,000 



INTERIOR CITIES. 

Population. 

Florence 80,000 

Gallipolis 80,000 

Bucharest 80,000 

Munich 80 000 

Granada S0.00O 

Ghent 80.000 

Lassa 80,000 

Cologne 75.000 

Morocco 75,000 

Perruckabad... 70,000 

Peshawen 70.000 

Quito 70,000 

Barreilly 70,000 

Guadalaxara.... 70,000 

Koenigsburg .. 70,000 

Turgan 70 000 

Salonica 70 000 

Bologna 70,000 

Bornaserai 70,060 



78 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



OUTPORTS. 

Population. 

Manilla 140,000 

Hamburg 130,000 

Bristol 120,000 

Havana 160,000 

Marseilles 130,000 

Barcelona 120,000 

Copenhagen... 120.000 

Smyrna 120,000 

St. Salvador... 120,000 

Cork 120,000 

Brussels 120,000 

Bordeaux 100,000 

Venice 100,000 

Baltimore 100,000 

New Orleans.. 100,000 

Boston , 100,000 

Tunis 100.000 

Nantes 100, 0: 

Hue 100.000 

Bankok 90,000 

Seville 90.000 

Gallipoli 80,000 

Genoa 80,000 

Stockholm 80,000 

Newcastle 80,000 

Massalipatan.. 75,000 

Pernambuco.. 75,000 

Lima 75,000 

Greenwich 75,000 

Aberdeen 70,000 

Antwerp 70,000 

Limerick 70,000 

Valentia 65,000 

Rotterdam G5,000 

Leghorn 65,000 

Dantzic 65,000 

Batavia 60,000 

Cadiz 55,000 

Hull 55,000 

Belfast 55,000 

Portsmouth... 55,000 

Trieste 55,000 

Malaga 52,000 

N.Guatimala.. 50,000 

Muscat 50,000 

Algiers 50.000 

Columbo 50,000 

Odessa 50,000 



INTERIOR CITIES. 

Population. 

Birmingham .. 230,000 

Lyons 200.000 

Madrid 200,000 

Delhi 200,000 

Aleppo 200,000 

Mirzapore 200.000 

Hyderbad 200,000 

Dacca 200,000 

Ispahan 200.000 

Yo-tchu 200,000 

Suen-tchu 200.000 

Huen-tchu 200,000 

Mexico 200,000 

Leeds 180,000 

Lyons 180,000 

Moorshedabad 160,000 

Milan 160,000 

Damascus 150,000 

Cashmere 150,000 

Rome 150,000 

Edinburgh 150,000 

Teheran 130,0fi0 

Turin 120,000 

Prague 120,000 

Warsaw 120,000 

Sheffield 120,000 

Bagdad 100,000 

Brussa 100.000 

Tocat 100,000 

Erzeroum 100,000 

Poonah 100,000 

Nagpore 100,000 

Ahmedabad... 100,000 

Lahore 100,0 

Baroda 100,000 

Orogein 100,000 

Candahar 100,000 

Balfrush 100,000 

Herat ]00,0n0 

Saigon 100,000 

Breslau 100,000 

Adrianople.... 100,000 

Kesho 100,0(0 

Rouen 10n,000 

Toulouse 90,000 

Indore 90,000 

Wolverh'pton 90,0^0 

Paisley 90,000 

Jackatoo 80,000 

Tauris 80,000 

Bucharia 80,000 

Gwallior 80,000 



INTERIOli CITIES. 

Population. 

Dresden 70 000 

Lille 70,000 

Norwich 70.000 

Perth 70,000 

Santiago 60,000 

Wilna 60,000 

Cabul 60,000 

Kbokhan 60.000 

Samarcand .... 60,000 

Kesht 60000 

Casween 60,000 

Diarbekir 60,000 

Karahissar 60,000 

Mosul 60,000 

Bassora 60,000 

Mecca G0.000 

Mequirez 6u,000 

Buno-alore 60.000 

Bardwan 60,000 

Aurangabad... 60,000 

Nottingham... 60.000 

Oldham 60,000 

Cordova 57,000 

Verona 56,000 

Padua 55,000 

Frankfort 54,0(0 

Liege 54,000 

Lemberg 52.000 

Stoke 52,000 

Kazar 50,000 

Salford 50.000 

Strasburg 50,000 

Amiens 50,000 

Kutaiah 50,000 

Trebizond 50,000 

Orfa 50,0C0 

Tario-a 50,000 

Cuzco 50,0! 

Puebla 50,000 

Metz 50,0(0 

Hague 50,000 

Bath 50,000 

Constantiua ... 50,000 

Cairwan 50,000 

Gondar 50,000 

Ava 50,000 

Rampore 50,000 

Mysore 50,000 

Bardwar 50,000 

Boli 50,000 

Hamah 50,000 

Cincinnati 50,000 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 79 

If it be said that the discoveries of the polarity of the mag- 
netic needle, the continent of America, and a water passage to 
India, around the Cape of Good Hope, have changed the char- 
acter of foreign commerce, and greatly augmented the advan- 
tages of the cities engaged in it, it may be replied that the 
introduction of steam in coast and river navigation, and of 
canals, and railroads, and McAdam roads, all tending to bring 
into rapid and cheap communication the distant parts of the 
most extended continent, is a still more potent cause in favor of 
internal trade and interior towns. The introduction, as instru- 
ments of commerce, of steamboats, canals, rail, and Mc&dani 
roads, being of recent date, they have not had time to produce 
the great results that must inevitably flow from them. The last 
20 years have been devoted mainly to the construction of these 
labor-saving instruments of commerce; during which time more 
has been done to facilitate internal trade than had been effected 
for the thousands of years since the creation of man. These 
machines are but just being brought into use; and he. is a bold 
man who, casting his eye 100 years into the future, shall 
undertake to tell the present generation what will be their effect 
on our North American valley when their energies shall be 
brought to bear over all its broad surface. 

Let it not be forgotten that, while many other countries have 
territories bordering the ocean, greatly superior to our Atlantic 
slope, no one government has an interior at all worthy a com- 
parison with ours. It will be observed that, in speaking of the 
natural facilities for trade in the North American valley, we have 
left out of view the 4,000 or 5,000 miles of rich and accessible 
coasts of our great lakes and their connecting straits. The 
trade of these inland seas, and its connection with that of the 
Mississippi Valley, are subjects too important to be treated inci- 
dentally in an article of so general a nature as this. They 
well merit a separate notice at our hands. 



Number II.— 1S43. 

Providence has evidently designed the temperate regions of 
the interior of North America for the residence of a dense 
population of highly civilized men. Throughout its southern 
and middle regions, which are elevated but a few hundred feet 
above the level of the G-ulf of Mexico, the deflected trade wind 
bears from that sea the vapors which, falling in showers, give 
fertility to the soil, and swell to navigable size their numerous 
and almost interminable rivers. Towards the North he has 
spread out, and connected by navigable straits, great seas of 



80 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

pure water, to equalize and soften the temperature of that com- 
paratively high latitude, and to aid in irrigating the surrounding 
countries. And he has so placed these seas as to give them 
the utmost availability for purposes of trade ; for, while they 
reach to the highest latitude to which profitable cultivation can 
be carried, they stretch away South almost to the very heart of 
the great valley. Towards the East they approach the Atlantic, 
and extend Westward towards the Pacific, more than a third 
of the distance across the continent. To give the lake and 
river countries easy access to each other, he has placed them 
nearly on tho same level, and strongly pointed out, and, indeed, 
in some places, almost finished, the great channels of intercourse 
between them. To invite and facilitate migration from Europe 
and the old States, he has provided the St. Lawrence and Missis- 
sippi rivers, and cut a passage through the Appalachian chain, 
where flow the turbulent Mohawk and the majestic Hudson. 
His munificence ends not here. He has diversified its surface 
with hills, vales, and plains, and clothed them alternately with 
fine groves of timber and beautiful meadows of grass and 
flowers. Beneath the soil, the minerals of nearly every geo- 
logical era, and of every kind which has been made tributary 
to man's comfort and civilization, are properly distributed. On 
the north, the waters of the great lakes begin their expansion 
in a region of primitive formation. Descending thence by the 
river St. Mary's into, and expanding over, a portion of that 
great transition limestone bed which forms the basis of the 
richest soil of the country, and after entering, by their southern- 
most reach, the coal measures of northern Ohio, they are pre- 
cipitated over the eastern margin of this great limestone basin 
at Niagara. A few miles distant they again spread out, 330 
feet below, in a region of salt-bearing sandstone and shales, and 
finally pass off to the ocean through a primitive country. Thus 
a great variety of minerals, useful to man, are placed where 
transportation and exchange are easy and cheap. Nor, in this 
connection, should be overlooked, among the multiplied evi- 
dences of Providential bounties to this favored region, the 
immense power to move machinery laid up for us at the outlet 
of Lake Krie. Here is a head of 330 feet, with an inexhaustible 
supply of pure water, easily and cheaply brought under control, 
in a healthy and pleasant country, and at the door of the great 
West. Nor should we omit to mention the harbors for the ship- 
ping, which abound in the primitive shores to the North, and 
which are also found at the mouths of all large streams of the 
transition and secondary region below. 

Such is the broad patrimony which we are invited to enter 
upon and improve. Our people have begun to enter into posses- 
sion. Along the line of the 5,000 or 6,000 miles of habitable 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 81 

shore which is offered to the mariner of these lakes, he may now 
and then see a cluster of houses, a nascent city ; and anon he 
may espy small indentations of their forest borders, where 
farmers have begun to hew their way to independence. The 
southern shore of Lake Erie, and both shores of Ontario, are so 
far advanced in settlement that it is easy to anticipate the 
speedy triumph of the art and industry of man. Already, in 
many places, he has achieved his victory ; for his farms and 
villages have nearly driven his forest enemy from his sight. 
Here he has already built himself spacious barns and comfort- 
able dwellings. He has also made roads on which to carry the 
produce of his industry to market. More than this : he has 
built towns, canals, and railroads, constructed and improved 
numerous harbors, and created a commercial marine that, three 
centuries ago, would have been a source of pride if possessed 
by the greatest maritime power in Europe. 

In anticipation of the early settlement of the fine country 
bordering these waters, and its capacity to furnish the basis of 
a large commerce, the Erie Canal was projected and opened. 
But its banks had hardly become solid, its business been got 
into train and reduced to system, before the discovery was made 
that its capacity would little more than suffice for the business 
of the country through which it runs, and, of course, that it 
would soon be inadequate to the passage of the trade then just 
springing up, with indications of a vigorous growth, on the 
upper lakes. Wild as were thought the visions of Morris and 
Clinton by the strictly practical men of their day, it turns out 
that what were considered visions were but practical deductions, 
falling short of the truth instead of exceeding it. Ten years 
after the chimerical grand canal was completed, men, having 
the reputation of being eminently practical, thought they saw 
the necessity of making it about three times as large, and forth- 
with entered upon such enlargement. Practical men in other 
States have believed, perhaps prematurely, that such portion of 
the lake trade as they could divert from this New York route 
would pay them for the outlay of so many millions as will be 
necessary to construct two more canals, and the same number 
of railroads, from the Alantic to the lake waters. Not only are 
cities and States entering upon a competition for this trade, but 
there are indications that a few years will witness an active 
emulation between the United States and Great Britain, in 
endeavors, on the one hand, to retain, and, on the other, to 
acquire it. On all sides it is admitted that the city of the 
Atlantic coast which receives the bulk of our Easten business 
will be the leading city of that border; and if it is not now 
admitted, it will soon be, that the emporium of the Mississippi 
Valley which commands the best channel of intercourse with 



82 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

the lakes must be, and remain, the queen city of the valley. 
But what is it that makes this lake country of such command- 
ing importance ? In the first place, it is of great extent. Its 
navigable shores, including bays and straits, measure more than 
5,000 miles. Not only do these command a large country lying 
back, in many placess, much beyond the head waters of the 
streams which flow into them, but, by means of valleys, canals, 
and other artificial aids, no inconsiderable portion of the Missis- 
sippi Y alley is made tributary to their commerce. This is owing 
to their affording the cheapest and best route to New York and 
Canada. Even with the small canal between Buffalo and Albany, 
levying tolls high enough to have already paid for its construc- 
tion, we find a strong inclination to that route, not only for the 
foreign and Eastern manufactures that are purchased in the great 
Atlantic emporium, and brought into the lake and Mississippi 
vallej-s, but for the farming produce of sections of country that 
formerly floated it down to New Orleans. This is strongly 
exemplified on the Ohio Canal, the lake end of which receives 
of the agricultural productions transported on it more than 
twelve times as much in value as the Ohio river termination. 
We have examined the receipts by canal, at Cleveland and 
Portsmouth, for the six past years — the only years for which 
the board of public works have given full returns — and the 
result shows the above proportion. For those six years, 

Cleveland received of wheat 8,325,022 bushels. 

Portsmouth " " 4,193 " 

Cleveland " flour 2,199,542 barrels. 

Portsmouth " " 149,645 " 

_ When the Erie Canal shall be made three times its original 
size, through its whole length, to Buffalo, or from Albany to 
Syracuse, with an equivalent enlargement of the Oswego Canal, 
the cost of transportation on it will be materially diminished, 
so as to draw trade to the lakes from a still more extended por- 
tion of the great valley. This tendency will be increased by the 
facilities which the Canadian improvements will give the lake 
ports, to make shipments direct to foreign ports ; and it will, in 
like manner, be greatly strengthened by the completion of the 
Wabash and Erie Canal, which comes first into operation the 
present season ; and by the Miami Canal, which will connect 
Cincinnati with the lake, by a direct communication of only 235 
miles in length, and which will be in operation in the summer of 
1814. Until the cities and towns of the central valley become 
numerous and large enough to consume most of its agricultural 
surplus, the main exertions of her people will be properly 
directed to the construction and improvement of channels for its 
transport, by way of the lakes, to Quebec, New York, and Boston. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 83 

The country lying north and northwest of the lakes, to an 
almost infinite extent, must carry on its main exchanges through 
these waters. This, though new and little improved, will, at no 
very distant day, become populous and powerful. Before the late 
troubles, the migration to Upper Canada from the United King- 
dom was unexampled in the history of colonization, being, some 
seasons, upwards of 50,000 annually. Quiet being again restored, 
the current in that direction is becoming stronger than ever. 

'The soil of the countries bordering the lakes is, in general, of 
the most fertile character ; and the climate, for health and 
pleasantness, equal to that of any part of the continent, except, 
perhaps, the table lands of Mexico. They join, and are in the 
same latitude, with those Atlantic States having the densest 
population and the greatest wealth; and the expenditure of time 
and money to change a residence from these to the lake borders 
is now small, and is every year becoming less. The main cur- 
rent of surplus population has for several yeai^s flowed from 
those States into the lake region ; and that current will grow 
wider, and deeper, and stronger, in proportion to the removal of 
obstacles impeding its progress. 

Now let us see what means are in course of preparation for 
making easy and cheap the intercourse between the lakes and 
the Atlantic States. First in importance is the enlarged Erie 
Canal. This work is now in progress, and it will probably be 
finished, as far as its connection with the Oswego Canal at Syra- 
cuse, in two years. By that time, it is hoped, the Oswego 
branch will also be enlarged to the same size. Its dimensions 
are 70 feet in width, 7 feet in depth, with double locks through- 
out, large enough to pass vessels of 150 tons. 

Next in importance, when finished, will be the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal, with its continuation from Pittsburgh to Cleve- 
land. This will be a continuous line of canal, about 520 miles in 
length, connecting tide water at Baltimore, and Georgetown 
with Lake Erie, at Cleveland. Its dimensions vary from 40 feet 
wide and 4 feet deep to 60 feet wide by 6 feet deep j averaging, 
say 50 feet wide and 5 feet deep. 

The Pennsylvania line of canal and railroad will unite with 
the foregoing at Pittsburgh, and from tide water at Philadelphia 
to Cleveland will be about 570 miles long. These are the rival 
canal routes in the States for the trade of the lakes. Let them 
stand together, that we may see how they compare : 

Length. Size. Lockage. Tr'shipm. 

Miles. 

1. Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany... 363 

2. Chesapeake and Ohio, and Mahoning 

and Ohio Canal to Cleveland 520 

3. Pennsylvania Works, and Mahoning 

and Ohio Canal, to Cleveland 570 



Feet. 


Feet. 


No. 


70 by 7 


6S8 


None 


50 by 5 


4,500 


3 


40 by 4 


5,000 


3 



Distance. 


Size 
of Canal. 


Size 
of Locks . 


Length 
of Canal. 


Lake 
and River. 


Miles. 


Feet. 


Feet. 


Miles. 


Miles. 


508 


70 by 7 


120 by 24 


360 


145 



84 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

It is a contrast rather than a comparison. If, however, the 
other routes were to afford equal facilities for business, that to 
New York would have a decided preference, because it leads to 
that established and controlling mart. But the Erie Canal is to 
have a formidable foreign rival. Canals are in process of con- 
struction around the rapids of St. Lawrence, of a size, and with 
locks, large enough to admit large steamboats; and the Welland 
Canal and locks are also being made capable of passing small 
steam vessels, and sailing vessels of 300 tons. These, when 
completed, will give entrance at once to foreign vessels of 1,000 
tons burden to Lake Ontario, and of 300 tons to the ports of 
Lake Erie. These works are vigorously going forward to com- 
pletion, the money necessary for that purpose being pledged 
under a guarantee of the home government. Many expect 
them to be finished in about two years; but we fear this expecta- 
tion is over-sanguine. A comparison of the New York and 
Canada routes would stand thus : 

From Lake Erie to New York, by canal and Hudson River— 

No of 
L'kage. Tr'shipm. 
Feet. 
688 1 

From entrance of Welland Canal on Lake Erie, to Montreal — 
407 100 by 10 200 by 50 G0£ 346 517 None. 

The locks of the Welland Canal are being constructed 122 feet 
long in the chamber and 26 feet wide. It will be seen that we 
have set down the size of the Erie Canal as if enlarged all the 
way to Lake Erie ; and the size of the Canadian locks, on the 
St. Lawrence, as if continued to the same lake. We have set 
down but one transhipment against the New York route by 
Buffalo ; whereas, in regard to all freights coming from other 
ports of the upper lakes, there will, of course, be a reshipment 
at Buffalo, as well as at Troy or Albany. Let us see how the 
New York route, by Oswego, will compare with that of the St. 
Lawrence : 

From exit of Welland Canal, in Lake Ontario, to New York — 

Size of Size of Length Lake and Reship- 

Distance. Canal. Locks. of Canal. River. Lockage, ments. 

501 miles. 70 by 7 feet. 120 by 24 feet. 209 miles. 295 miles. 551 feet. 2 

From exit of Welland Canal, in Lake Ontario, to Montreal— 
379 miles. HObylOft. 200 by50 feet. 32^ miles. 347 miles. 18S£ ft. None. 

In a report of the Board of Directors of the Welland Canal, 
in 1835, it is stated that "merchandise from London would be 
conveyed to Cleveland for £2 10s. per ton," when the St. Law- 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



85 



rence should bo rendered navigable to the lakes by the works 
now in process of construction. This would be 54 cents per 100 
lbs., not above two-thirds its present cost from New York. If 
this statement be not greatly erroneous, European goods will be 
delivered at the ports of Lake Erie, on the completion of the 
Canadian canals, cheaper than at the port of New Orleans. 

The railroads made, and in progress, to connect the ocean and 
the lakes, are: 1st, that from Buffalo to Albany, and thence by 
branches to Boston, New York, and all the large towns of New 
England and the State of New York; 2d, the Hudson and Erie 
from Dunkirk to the Hudson ; 3d, the Sunbury, from Erie to 
Philadelphia, and 4th, the Baltimore and Ohio, which, beginning 
at Baltimore and Washington, will, one day, terminate on Lake 
Erie, at Cleveland and Maumee; the former branch passing 
through Pittsburgh, the latter through Wheeling. Of these 
routes, that passing along near the line of the Erie Canal pos- 
sesses nearly the same advantage over the others, as that canal 
has been shown to afford over her would-be rivals of Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland. It avoids the ascent and descent of the 
Alleghany Mountains, and, passing along a level country, is much 
straighter, is made and kept in repair at much less expense, and, 
of course, will allow a greater speed to the locomotives that fly 
along its track. 

Such are the great works made and making ; and for whom ? 
Surely not for the two or three millions that, within a few years 
past, have fixed their home in the lake countries. No ! but for 
the anticipated tens of millions of intelligent and industrious 
freemen, who will, as a moderate forecast enables men to see. in 
no long course of years, spread over and clear and cultivate and 
beautify these pleasant and fertile shores. Whatever other error 
may arise from making the past a basis of calculation for the 
future, that of a too sanguine estimate could hardly be com- 
mitted, in treating of any civilized country of the present day, 
much less of ours, the most rapidly progressive of the whole 
family of nations. To exhibit the growth of the principal upper 
lake towns, from 1830 to 1840, we here give their population at 
those periods : 



1830. 

Buffalo 8,653 

Erie : 1,329 

Cleveland* 1,076 

Sandusky City 400 

Lower Sandusky.... 351 

Perrysburg 182 

Maumee City 200 

Toledo 30 



1840. 
18,213 
3.412 
7,648 
1,433 
1,L17 
1,065 
1,290 
2,053 



12,221 36,231 



1830. 

Detroit 2,222 

Monroe 500 

Chicago 100 

Milwaukee 20 

Huron 75 



2.917 
12,221 



1840. 

9,102 
1.703 
4.470 
1,712 
1.488 

18 475 
36,231 



J Including Ohio City. 



Total 15,138 54,7( 



86 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Showing an increase which, if the numerous villages that have 
commenced their existence since 1830 were added, would more 
than quadruple their numbers in ten years. The increase of 
business on the upper lakes has been in a greater ratio than even 
ten to one. Indeed, it has nearly all grown up since 1830. If 
the reader doubt this, let him examine and compare the account 
of the collector of canal tolls at Buffalo for that year with that 
for the past season, and add to the last the produce passing 
through the Welland Canal. 

But it should not be forgotten that, while the relative amount 
of produce of the soil, in proportion to the population, is rapidly 
augmenting, our cities and towns are beginning to receive a 
large accession of mechanics, manufacturers, and other business 
men, which will more and more tend by its increase to keep 
down exports to the East. The intercourse between the agri- 
cultural and manufacturing regions of our country will doubtless 
increase as fast, and be productive of as much mutual benefit, as 
any friend of both sections now anticipates ; but the home trade 
within the limits of our North American valley will grow much 
faster, and possess a vigor as superior to the former as do the 
great arteries near the heart of those of the lin bs of the human 
system. Western commerce with the Atlantic border is anal- 
ogous to that of the Eastern and Middle States with Europe. 

This trade has had a rapid development, but by no means in 
proportion to the augmentation of that with their own coast 
and interior. The foreign commerce of Philadelphia, for 
instance, is no greater than it was in 1787, when the popula- 
tion of the city and liberties did not exceed 40,000, while its 
home trade has increased tenfold, and its population become 
more than five times 40,000. It will probably supiuse many of 
our readers to be informed that the exports and imports of our 
upper lake region, the past season, have probably exceeded in 
value those of all the colonies on an average of six years pre- 
ceding 1775. According to Pitkin, the annual exports from the 
colonies, of those six years, amounted to £1,752,142, and the 
imports to £2,732,036. The average annual amount of the 
exports and imports of this upper lake country for the last three 
years would be estimated low at $20,000,000. Such are the 
results of the infantile labors of the young Hercules of the 
lakes. 

The basins of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi constitute 
nearly all the great interior valley. Each of these basins, when 
settled to a fair extent, will have a vast commerce of its own ; 
and it will be interesting to ascertain through what channels 
and through what towns the great intercourse that will naturally 
grow up between them will be carried on. The time will come, 
within the present century, when the trade between the northern 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 87 

and southern portions of the North American valley will become 
more important than that of the whole valley, with the Eastern 
States and Europe. Until that period arrives, the channels 
which command most of the Eastern business will be of para- 
mount importance. Let us examine the relative claims of those 
now used and soon to be prepared for use. 

Coming from the East, the first improved communication con- 
necting lake and river trade is the Genesee Yalley and Olean 
Canal. This will compete with, the canal from Erie, for the 
supply of Eastern and European manufactures to much of 
Western Pennsylvania. In the intercourse between Pittsburgh 
and the upper lakes, which must soon be of great importance, 
the channels terminating at Erie and Cleveland will be rivals. 
To determine which of these is best, requires a more minute 
knowledge of them than wo possess. Supposing them equal, 
Cleveland being the largest town, and the best mart for such 
manufactures as Pittsburgh exports, will be sure to attract the 
greatest portion of this trade. 

The Ohio Canal, from Cleveland to Portsmouth, on the Ohio, 
with its arms to Pittsburgh, to Marietta, and to Athens on the 
Hocking, furnishes an ample highway for the interchange of 
productions between the lake regions, and the East and the river 
regions, embracing Southeastern Ohio, Southwestern Pennsyl- 
vania, and Western Yirginia. This it holds without having or 
fearing a rival. How far down in Ohio can its exports from the 
lakes be carried ? This can be ascertained, with some degree of 
certainty, by comparing it with the Miami Canal route. 

The Miami Canal, connecting the lake at Maumee with the 
Ohio at Cincinnati, embraces at its north end 60 miles of what 
is known as the Wabash and Erie Canal. It is completed, with 
the exception of 35 miles, which is to be constructed within the 
next year. The Eastern trade, by way of the Ohio and Miami 
Canals, will probably meet on the Ohio, above Maysville. Let 
us see : 

Miles. 

■c~~™ t „i „ t? •„ of. pi ^ i„„,i /By Ohio Canal to Portsmouth 306 

From Lake Erie, at Cleveland, | B £ Qhio Riyer down tQ Maysville 47 

Total 353 

From Lake Erie, at Maumee, (^ Miami Canal to Cincinnati 235 

-"""-^ ■"■••«' j «*«■ Ittaum ^ ^By Ohio River up to Maysville 66 

Total 301 

Difference in favor of Miami route 52 

Sixty miles of the Miami Canal (the Wabash and Erie portion) 
is more than twice as large as the Ohio Canal. The lockage on 
the Miami Canal is several hundred feet less than it is on the 



88 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Ohio Canal. The conclusion seems unavoidable that the Miami 
route will send its lake productions and Eastern business as far 
up the Ohio as Maysville. What will be the limit of its control 
of this business, South and Southwest? Following the shores 
of the lakes Westward from Maumee Bay, one will look in vain 
for any rival channel between the lakes and the Mississippi 
waters, before reaching the Illinois Canal, at Chicago. The 
Miami Canal can have no rival in the Eastern business of at 
least 10,000 square miles of Ohio, the southeastern portion, or 
9,000 square miles of Indiana, and nearly the whole of Ken- 
tucky. It remains to show where the trade from Lake Erie, by 
way of the Miami Canal, will probably meet, on equal terms, the 
same trade by way of the Illinois Canal, on the Mississippi 
waters ; in other words, what portion of the great river valley 
will be likely to use the one or the other in the transaction of its 
Eastern business ? Will the place at which they may meet on 
equal terms be at the mouth of the Cumberland river? The 
Cumberland waters a large extent of fertile country, affords 
good navigation, and has upon its banks besides many other 
thriving towns, the important commercial city of Nashville. 
We will place the distances by the two routes side by side. Lake 
Erie is the common starting point; for upon her waters must 
merchandise first come, whether the Erie Canal or St. Lawrence 
be the channel through which it has been transported: 

Lake Erie to the mouth of Cumberland River, by way of Miami Canal. 

Miles. 

From Maumee harbor to Cincinnati, by canal 235 

" Cincinnati to the mouth of Cumberland, by river 449 

Total 684 

By way of Illinois Canal. 

From Lake Erie to Chicago, by the lakes 750 

" Chicago to lower end of Illinois ("anal 100 

" thence to mouth of Illinois Kiver 267 

" thence down the Mississippi to mouth of Ohio — 209 

4 ' thence up the Ohio to the mouth of Cumberland 57 

Total 1,383 

Difference in favor of Miami route 699 

It will be observed that the Illinois route has an excess of 86 
miles of river navigation over the Miami channel, some of which 
is inferior to that of the lower Ohio. This will, in part, go to 
balance the excess of canal on the Miami route. The Cumber- 
land Yalley, then, clearly belongs to the Eastern rival. 

But here comes the more important Tennessee, a river longer 
than the Bhine, the Elbe, or the Tagus, and navigable into the 
rich cotton regions of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 6^ 

This is a prize worth contending for. Which of our rival chan- 
nels will supply its fertile and extensive valley with the large 
amount of merchandise which its ample means and civilized 
wants will require ? There are but 13 miles separating the 
mouths of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, so that the Illi- 
nois channel gains but 26 miles in comparison with the route 
just detailed. Still will this route have a balance against it of 
673 miles, as compared with its rival, which the following figures 
will show : 

Miles. 

From Lake Erie to mouth of Tennessee, by Chicago 1,870 

u " " " Miami and Cincinnati.. 697 

Difference in favor of Miami route * 673 

We now descend to where the Ohio joins the Father of Waters. 
Will the trade of the East, through Lake Erie, reach this point? 
It has already, to some extent, passed out of the Ohio, both up 
and down the Mississippi, and by a course more circuitous and 
expensive than either of those I am now comparing, to-wit : 
that by the Ohio Canal. Let the comparison, then, be made at 
this point between our rivals. From the mouth of the Ten- 
nessee to the Mississippi the distance is 44 miles : 

Miles. 

From Lake Erie to mouth of Ohio, by Chicago and St. Louis 1,326 

" " " " Maumee and Cincinnati 741 

Difference in favor of the latter route • 5S5 

In going up the Mississippi, we must, of course, come to the 
point where the advantages of the two routes will be equal. Is 
that point at St. Louis ? 

Mile3 

From Lake Erie to St. Louis, by Chicago 1,150 

'' " " Miami Canal and Ohio and Miss.... 917 

Difference 233 

Thus it appears that St. Louis will have a choice of two nearly 
equally desirable routes of communication with New York, by 
way of Lake Erie. Another route from Lake Erie to St. Louis, 
by way of the Wabash and Erie Canal, would be much better. 

Miles. 

From Maumee to Covington, on Wabash, by canal 270 

" Covington by proposed rail to St. Louis 196 

Whole distance 460 

On the whole, it seems to us quite plain that of all the chan- 
nels of trade now upen and being opened in our extensive 



90 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

country, no one of the same extent is destined to be the medium- 
of such extensive commercial operations as the canal which con- 
nects, by the shortest route, Lake Erie with Cincinnati. 

When the day shall arrive that witnesses the predominance of 
the home trade of the North American valley over that which 
is carried on with the Eastern States and with Europe, and the- 
intercourse between the northern and southern portions of it 
takes the place of that which now is carried on with the old 
States; and when, also, the shores of the upper lakes shall be 
brought under cultivation, and become densely settled, the just 
claims of the Chicago route to participate largely in the trade 
between the lakes and the central and lower Mississippi Valley 
will be greatly enlarged. Then she will be the port from which 
supplies of Southern productions will bo drawn for all the borders 
of the great Lakes Michigan and Superior, and the northern shores 
Of Lakes Huron and Iroquois, and through which will be sent 
southward most of the surplus productions of those extensive 
regions. But the Miami Canal, as soon as completed, will fall 
into possession of a well-peopled and highly-cultivated region 
Of great extent, whose productions will rush through, from both 
extremes, the moment it is rendered navigable. Not less than 
two millions of people, living in the southwestern part of Ohio, 
the southeastern part of Indiana, and almost throughout the 
entire States of Kentucky and Tennessee, will make it the 
medium through which their imports from New York will be 
received; and not less than one million, living on the borders of 
the lakes, will depend on it for the introduction of sugar, cotton, 
rice, and other peculiar productions of the South. If the agri- 
cultural productions put afloat upon it incline as strongly for a 
market to the lake end of this as of the Ohio Canal (and we 
cannot doubt that they will still more so, for it is a better and 
more direct canal, being 71 miles shorter), then will they pass 
along its whole line, from south to north, embracing the vast 
surplus gathered in at Cincinnati. From the lake there will be 
sent up this canal, besides merchandise, great quantities of pine 
lumber, building stone (which abounds near its northern termi- 
nation), mineral coal, salt, gypsum, lake-fish ) and doubtless 
many other articles. It seems clear, then, that, of all the 
thoroughfares provided for the promotion of trade between the 
lake and the river valleya of the TVeit, the Miami Canal is to bo 
by far the most important. 

But there are rivals in the New York trade with the river 
valley, which nowhere touch the lakes or the Erie Canal. These 
are, first, the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, by canals and rail- 
roads; and, second, the Ocean, Gulf, and Paver route, by way of 
New Orleans. It remains to compare these with the Miami 
channel. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 91 

The present leading emporium of river commerce, Cincinnati, 
will be the assumed point of receipt and shipment. 

For expense of the carnage of goods (100 pounds) at present rates, 
from New York to Maumee, 800 miles 80 

Insurance of 100 pounds at one-half of one per cent, on estimated 
average value of $16 . OS 

From Maumee to Cincinnati, by Miami Canal, 235 miles 45 

Amount , $1 33 

By Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from New York, the freight and 
eharges will be — 

To Philadelphia, per 100 pounds 12 

"Pittsburgh, " " $110 

" Cincinnati, '• " 20 

" insurance of 100 pounds at 1£ per cent, on $16... 20 

Amount $1 62 

The time required by each will be nearly the same when the 
Ohio is in good navigable condition. It is, however, well known 
that the river between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati is not to be 
relied on for any considerable portion of the season, when the 
Pennsylvania canals are navigable; and the merchant, who, 
above all things, desires certainty and expedition in his opera- 
tions, will hardly decline the reliable and safe route by the lake, 
in favor of the more uncertain and hazardous one by the Ohio 
river. For his earliest spring supplies, he will doubtless receive 
a small stock by the Pennsylvania and Baltimore routes; but 
for his main supply, he will as certainly adopt the safest and 
cheapest channel. Which of these routes will be the best for the 
surplus of agriculture shipped to New York ? Contracts by 
responsible lines have been made for the transportation of flour, 
from Lafayette, on the Wabash, to New York, for from $1 45 
to $1 50 per barrel. The distance from Lafayette to Maumee is 
215 miles, 20 miles less than from Cincinnati. Wo will, there- 
fore, put the cost of sending a barrel of flour — 

From Cincinnati to New York, at $1 55 

f Up the Ohio to Pittsburgh 45 

Pittsburgh route < Canal and railroad to Philadelphia..... , $1 10 

(_ Thence to New York - 12 

Total per barrel $1 67 

The difference in the cost of insurance would ordinarily be 6 
or 8 cents in favor of the lake route. On pork and other articles, 
the proportion of expense would be about the same. 



92 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Lot a comparison now be instituted between the lake and 
ocean routes; and, first, in the transport of goods Westward : 

From New York by Lake Erie, as before detailed, cost per 100 lbs... $1 33 

f New York to New Orleans 25 

-r, „ . ,•!,.:„-.„ New Orleans to Cincinnati 63 

By ocean and nvei -j Inslirance to New Orleans, 2 per cent, on $16... 32 

[ Insurance to Cincinnati " "... 32 

Total $1 52 

As most of the goods bought in New York for the Cincinnati 
market would greatly exceed in value our estimate of §16 per 
100 pounds, the interior route will have, in regard to all such, a 
still greater advantage over that by the ocean, and in propor- 
tion to the excess of cost above that sum. 

Productions sent for theWest, having greater weight and bulk 
in proportion to their value than merchandise coming the other 
way, can better afford to pay insurance ; and, other things being 
equal, would incline to the iSew Orleans outlet as the cheapest. 
The cost of taking flour to the New York market, from all 
places on the Ohio below Cincinnati ( at which point it will be 
about equal ) , will be less this way than by the Miami Canal. 
But flour taken from the West, through New Orleans, brings less 
in the great Northern markets than that which goes by the 
lakes, by more than the ordinary cost of carriage from the 
mouth of the Ohio to Cincinnati. This is well known to be 
owing to the great liability to damage in going through a hot 
climate. As a final market, New Orleans is, in general, very 
fluctuating and uncertain. These facts assure us that nearly 
all the surplus flour, within reach of the canals leading from the 
lakes into the Mississippi Yalley, will take the northern road to 
market. For safety from the bursting of boilers, there is no 
steam navigation in the States, and perhaps not in the world, 
equal to that of the lakes. On the ocean the use of salt water, 
and on the Western rivers the use of muddy water, for the 
boilers, has probably occasioned a large proportion of the explo- 
sions that have so greatly augmented the risk of navigation on 
the Mississippi waters. The pure water of the lakes has proved 
eminently favorable to safe steam navigation; and the numerous 
harbors along the American shore of Lake Erie have lessened 
the risk, and given it an advantage in that respect over the 
others — Ontario, perhaps, excepted. 

But it may 'be said that, at no distant day, a large portion 
of the productions of foreign countries brought into the great 
Western marts for sale will be imported directly from the 
regions in which they are produced, and that the assuming of 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 93 

New York as the great center of supply will fail in regard to 
these, and thus affect the conclusions heretofore drawn. An 
examination of the various inlets to this foreign trade will not, 
however, much vary the results on the routes we have con- 
trasted and compared. Is the St. Lawrence, the route tor the 
European supplies, adopted ? The Miami and Illinois Canals 
will still be the channels for its transport to a great part of the 
Mississippi Yalley. Is the Mississippi the chosen channel for 
the introduction of what are usually called West India and South 
American products to the upper lakes? Still are these the only 
rivals in their transportation. "W ill the Mississippi challenge a 
comparison with the St. Lawrence, in our anticipated European 
trade ? Such comparison can only result in the triumph of her 
northern rival. It would not be difficult to prove that, when the 
canals now being made around the obstructions to navigation 
from Montreal to the upper lakes shall be finished, so as to 
admit sea-going vessels to their ports, freight and insurance 
between Liverpool and the ports of Cleveland, Maumee, and 
perhaps Chicago, will be lower than to the port of New Orleans. 
The distance from England or France, by the St. Lawrence, to 
the ports of Lake Erie, is less, by more than 1, LOO miles, than 
to New Orleans by the Gulf of Mexico. Of the St. Lawrence 
route, the distance b}^ river and canal, requiring the aid of 
steam or horse power, may be about 200 miles ; and by the Mis- 
sissippi, from its mouth to New Orleans, upwards of 100 miles. 
The advantage possessed by the latter of the saving of tolls 
can hardly be an offset against the 1,100 miles additional length 
of voyage. Each route will have some peculiar advantage. 
The northern will build, man, and own, the shipping employed 
on it ; whereas the southern will depend on ships foreign to her 
port. The southern will be open all the year; whereas the 
northern will be barred by ice half the year. The favorable 
effect upon a trade, of being carried on by a maritime people in 
their own vessels, from their own ports, is made manifest by 
contrasting the trade of Boston and Portland with that of 
Charleston and New Orleans. As New Orleans depends mainly 
on Northern and European vessels to carry on her coastwise 
and foreign commerce, the lakes can furnish her with their 
vessels from the middle of November to the middle of April, a 
season most favorable for the trade of that port, but of entire 
idleness to lake vessels that do not seek employment on the 
open seas of more sunny climes. 



94 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



Number III.— 1S43. 



Tho increasing tendency to reside in towns and cities which is 
manifested by tho inhabitants of all countries, as they make 
progress in the arts and refinements of civilization, is sufficiently 
obvious to most men who think on the subject. But it is not 
so apparent, to those whose attention has not been particularly 
turned to the matter, that the improvements of the last century 
have so much strengthened that tendency as almost to make it 
seem like a new principle of society, growing out of the com- 
bined agency of steam power and machinery. Mr. Hume, 
who had as clear apprehension of the relations of the vari- 
ous conditions of society, and the operation of the causes 
modifying them, as any man of his time, expresses the 
opinion that no city of antiquity probably ever contained 
more inhabitants than London, which at the time he wrote, 
near one hundred years ago, was estimated at 800,000. 
He thought there were internal and inherent causes to check 
and stop the growth of the most favorably situated cities 
when they reached that size. Taking the then existing con- 
dition of society as tho basis of his reasoning, it seems probable 
that he judged correctly. Neither the spinning jenny, nor 
the power loom, nor the steam engine, nor the canal, nor the 
McAdam road, nor the railway, had then been brought into use; 
nor had the productive power of the soil, aided by science and 
art, been, at that time, tasked to its utmost to bring forth human 
sustenance. Mr. Hume looked with the eye of a philosopher on 
the past and the present; but, in predicting of the future, his 
mistakes were nearly as numerous as his vaticinations. To 
judge of the future by the past may seem safe and philosophie 
to those who believe not in the certain advance of mankind 
towards a more perfect condition of nature. So to judge was 
in accordance with the skeptical mind of Mr. Hume. Let us 
avoid, so far as we may, his mistake ; though to us it seems not 
practicable to avoid falling into some degree of error of the 
same sort when we undertake to foretell future conditions and 
events in a rapidly progressive community. 

What has been the effect of the improvements, physical and 
moral, of the past century, on the growth of towns? and what 
is likely to be their future effect, aided by other and probably 
greater improvements, on the growth of towns, during the hun- 
dred years to come? We define town to mean any place 
numbering 2,000 or more inhabitants. It is to Great Britain we 
are to look for the main evidences of the effects of the labor- 
saving improvements of the last century. The first canal was 
commenced in that country by the Duke of Bri dgewater, no 
longer ago than 1760. The invention of the spinning jenny, 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 95 

by Hargreaves, followed seven years after. Not long after this, 
the spinning frame was contrived by the ingenuity of Arkwright. 
In 1775, Mr. Crompton produced the machine called the mule, a 
combination of the two preceding. Some time afterwards, Mr. 
Cartwright invented the power loom, but it was not until after 
1820 that it was brought into general use. The steam engine, 
the moving power of all this machinery, was so improved by 
Watt, in 1785, as to entitle him to claim, for all important prac- 
tical purposes, being its inventor. At the same time that thess 
great inventions were being brought into use, the nation was 
making rapid progress in the construction of canals and roads, 
and in the duplication of her agricultural products. Indeed, 
great part of her works to cheapen and facilitate internal trade, 
including her canals, her McAdam roads, and her railways, 
have been constructed within the last thirty years. The effect 
of these, in building up towns, is exemplified by the following 
facts: Mr. Slaney, M. P., stated in the House of Commons, in 
Ma}^, 1830, that, "in England, those engaged in manufacturing 
and mechanical occupations, as compared with the agricultural 
class, were 6 to 5, in 1801 ; they were as 8 to 5 in 1821 ; and 2 
to 1 in 1830. In Scotland, the increase had been still more 
extraordinary-. In that country they were as 5 to 6 in 1801 ; as 
9 to 6 in 1821; and, in 1830, as 2 to 1. The increase of the 
general population for the preceding twenty years had been 30 
per cent.; in the manufacturing population it had been 40 per 
cent.; in Manchester, Liverpool, Coventry, and Birmingham, 
the increase had been 50 per cent.; in Leeds, it had been 54 per 
cent.; in Glasgow, it had been 100 per cent." The increase of 
population in England and Wales, from 1821 to 1831, was 1& 
per cent. This increase was nearly all absorbed in towns and 
their suburbs, as the proportion of people engaged in agricul- 
ture has decreased decidedly with every census. More scientific 
modes of culture, and more perfect machines and implements, 
combined with other causes, have rendered an increased amount 
of human labor unnecessary in the production of a greatly aug- 
mented amount of food. In 1831, but one-third of the people 
oi England were employed in the labors of agriculture. In 
1841, very little more than one-fourih were so employed. 

In Scotland, seven of the best agricultural counties decreased 
in population, from 1831 to 1841, from 1 to 5 per cent.; whereas, 
the counties in which were her principal towns increased d.iring 
the same period from 15 to 34.8 per cent.; the latter being the 
increase of the county of Lanark, in which Glasgow is situated. 
The average increase of all Scotland for those ten years was 
11.1 per cent. According to Marshall, the increase of popula- 
tion in England for the ten years preceding 1831, was 30 per 
cent, in the mining districts, 25 £ in the manufacturing, and 19 



96 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

in the metroplitan (Middlesex county), while in the inland towna 
and villages it was only 7| per cent. 

The railways, which now traverse England in every quarter, 
and bring into near neighborhood its most distant points, have 
been nearly all constructed since 1880. Their effect, in aid of 
the other works, in augmenting the present great centers of 
population, will, obviously, be very considerable ; how great 
remains to be developed by the future. London, with its 
suburbs, has now about 2,000,000 of inhabitants j but she is 
probably far below the culminating point of her greatness. The 
kingdom of which she is the commercial heart doubles its popu- 
lation in forty-two years. It is reasonable, then, to suppose 
that, within the next fiity years, London and the other great 
foci of human beings in that kingdom will have more than 
twice their present numbers; for it is proved that nearly the 
whole increase in England is monopolized by the lage commer- 
cial and manufacturing towns, with their suburbs. 

Will similar causes produce like effects in the United States ? 
In the States of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Ohio, the improvements of the age operated te some extent on 
their leading towns from 1880 to 1840. Massachusetts had little 
benefit from canals, railways, or steam power ; but her towns felt 
.the beneficent influence of her labor-saving machinery moved by 
water power, and her improved agriculture and common roads. 
The increase of her nine principal towns, commencing with Bos- 
ton and ending with Cambridge, from 1830 to 1840, was 06,373, 
equal to 53 per cent.; being more than half the entire increase 
of the State, which was but 128,000, or less than 21 per cent. 
The increase, leaving out those towns, was but 11 per cent. Of 
this 11 per cent., great part, if not all, must have been in the 
towns not included in our list. 

The growth of the towns in the State of New York, during 
the same period, is mainly due to her canals. That of the four- 
teen largest, from New York to Seneca, inclusive, was 204,S07, 
or 64£ per cent.; whereas, the increase in the whole State was 
less than 27 per cent., and of the State, exclusive of these towns, 
but 19 per cent. Of this, it is certain that nearly all is due to 
the other towns not in the list of the fourteen largest. 

Pennsylvania has canals, railways, and other improvements, 
that should give a rapid growth to her towns. These works, 
however, had not time, after their completion, to produce their 
proper effects before the crash of her monetary system nearly 
paralyzed every branch of her industry, except agriculture and 
the coal business. Nine of her largest towns, from Philadelphia 
to Erie, inclusive, exhibit a gain, from 1830 to 1840, of 84,642, 
being at the rate of 39J per cent. This list does not include 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 97 

Pottsvillo or any other mining town. The increase of the whole 
State was but 21f per cent. 

Ohio has great natural facilities for trade, in her lake and 
river coast; the former having become available only since the 
opening of the Erie canal, in 1826, and that to little purpose 
before 1830. She has also canals, which have been constructing 
and coming gradually into use since 1830. These now amount 
to about 760 miles. For the last five years, she has also con- 
structed an extent of McAdam roads exceeding any other State, 
and amounting to hundreds of miles. Her railways, which are 
of small extent, have not been in operation long enough to have 
produced much effect. From this review of the State, it will 
not be expected to exhibit as great increase in town population, 
from 1830 to 1810, as will distinguish it hereafter. The effects 
of her public improvements, however, will be clearly seen in the 
following exhibit: Eighteen of her largest towns, and the same 
number of medium size and average increase, contained, in 
1830, 58,310, which had augmented, in 1840, to 138,016; show- 
ing an increase of 138 per cent. The increase of the whole 
State, during the same period, was 62 per cent. The northwest 
quarter of the State has no towns of any magnitude, and has but 
begun to be settled. This quarter had but 12,671 inhabitants in 
1830, and 92,050 m 1810. 

The increase of the twenty largest towns in the United States, 
from New York to St. Louis, inclusive, from 1830 to 1840, was 
55 per cent., while that of the Avhole country was less than 34 
per cent. If the slaveholding States were left out, the result of 
the calculation would be still more favorable to the towns. 

The foregoing facts clearly show the strong tendency of 
modern improvements to build towns. Our country has just 
begun its career ; but as its progress in population is in a geo- 
metrical ratio, and its improvements more rapidly progressive 
than its population, we are startled at the results to which we 
are brought by the application of these principles to the cen- 
tury into which our inquiry now leads us. 

In 1840, the United States had a population of 17,068,666. 
Allowing its future increase to be at the rate of 33£ per cent., 
for each succeeding period of ten years, we shall number, in 
1940, 303,101,641. Past experience warrants us to expect this 
great increase. In 1790, our number was 3,927,827. Supposing 
it to have increased in each decade, in the ratio of 38 J per cent., 
it would, in 1840, have amounted to 16,560,256 ; being more 
than half a million less than our actual number, as shown by 
the census. With 300,000,000, we should have less than 150 to 
the square mile for our whole territory, and but 220 to the square 
mile for our organized States and territories. England has 300 



98 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

to the square mile. It does not, then, seem probable that our pro- 
gressive increase will be materially checked within the one 
hundred years under consideration. At the end of that period, 
Canada will probably number at least 20,000,00(3. If we sup- 
pose the portion of our country, east and south of the 
Appalachian chain of mountains, known as the Atlantic slope, 
to possess at that time 40,000,000, or near five times its present 
number, there will be left 260,000,000 for the great centraL region 
between the Appalachian and Eocky Mountains, and between 
the Gulf of Mexico and Canada, and for the country west of the 
Eocky Mountains. Allowing the Oregon territory 10,000,000, 
there will be left 250,000,000 for that portion of the American 
States lying in the basins of the Mobile, Mississippi, and St. 
Lawrence. If, to these, we add 20,000,000 for Canada, we have 
270,000,000 as the probable number that wdl inhabit the North 
American valley at the end of the one hundred years, com- 
mencing in 1840. If we suppose one-third, or 90,000,000, of 
this number to reside in the country as cultivators or artisans, 
there will be 180,000,000 left for the towns — enough to people 
360, each containing half a million. This does not seem so 
incredible as that the valley of the Nile, scarcely twelve miles 
broad, should have once, as historians tell us, contained 20,000 
cities. 

But, lest one hundred years seem too long to be relied on, in 
a calculation having so many elements, let us see how matters 
will stand fifty 3'ears from 1840, or forty-seven years from this 
time. The ratio of increase we have adopted cannot be objected 
to as extravagant for this period. In 1890, according to that 
ratio, our number will be 72,000,000. Of these, 22,000,000 will 
be a fair allowance for the Atlantic slope. Of the remaining 
50,000,000, 2,000,000 may reside west of the Eocky Mountains, 
leaving 48,000,000 for the great valley within the States. If, to 
these, we add 5,000,000 as the population of Canada, we have an 
aggregate of 53,000,000 for the North American valley. One- 
third, or say 18,000,000, being set down as farming laborers and 
rural artisans, there will remain 35,000,000 for the towns, which 
might be 70 in number, having each half a million souls. It can 
scarcely be doubted that, within the forty-seven years, our agri- 
culture will be so improved as to require less than one-third to 
furnish food and raw materials for manufacture for the whole 
population. Good judges have said that we are not now more 
than twenty or thirty years behind England in our husbandry. 
It is certain that we are rapidly adopting her improvements in 
this branch of industry; and it is not to be doubted that very 
many new improvements will be brought out, both in Europe 
and America, which will tend to lessen the labor necessary in 
tho production of food and raw materials. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 99 

The tendency to bring to reside in towns all not engaged in 
agriculture that machinery and improved ways of intercourse 
have created, has already been illustrated by the example of 
England and some of our older States. Up to this time, our 
North American valley has exhibited but few striking evidences 
of this tendency. Its population is about 10,500,000 ; but, with 
the exception of New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Montreal, it has 
no large towns. As a whole, it has been too sparsety settled to 
build up many. Too intent on drawing out the resources of our 
exuberantly rich soil, we have neglected the introduction of those 
manufactures and mechanic arts that give agricultural produc- 
tions their chief value by furnishing an accessible market. 
This mistake, however, is rapidly bringing about its own remedy. 
In Ohio, the oldest (not in time but in maturity) of our Western 
States, the arts of manuf cture have commenced their appro- 
pria'e business of building towns. Cincinnati, with its suburbs, 
has upwards of 50,000 inhabitants ; a larger proportion of whom 
are engaged in manufactures and trades than of either of the 
sixteen principal towns of the Union except Lowell. The aver- 
age proportion so engaged in all these towns is 1 to 8.79. In 
Cincinnati it is 1 to 4.50. Indeed, our interior capital has but 
two towns (New York and Philadelphia) before her in number 
of persons engaged in manufactures and trades. Our smaller 
towns, Dayton, Zanesville, Columbus, and Steubenville, having 
each about 6,000 inhabitants, have nearly an equal proportion 
engaged in the same occupation. 

These examples are valuable only as indicating the direction to 
which the industry of our people tends in those portions of the 
West where population has attained a considerable degree of 
density. Of the ten and a half millions now inhabiting this 
valley, little more than half a million live in towns; leaving 
about ten millions employed in making farms out of the wilds, 
and producing human food and materials for manufactures. 
Wheii, in 1890, our number reaches 53,000,000, according to our 
estimate, there will be but one-third of this number, to-wit : 
18,000,000, omplo} T ed in agriculture and rural trades. Of the 
increase up to that time (being 42,500,000;, 8,000,000 will go 
into rural occupations, and 34,500,000 into towns. This would 
people sixty-nine towns with each half a million. 

Should we, yielding to the opinion of those who may believe 
that more than one-third of our people will be required for agri- 
culture and rural trades, make the estimate on the supposition 
that one-half the population of our valley, forty-seven years 
hereafter, will live on farms, and in villages below the rank of 
towns, the account will stand thus: 28,500,000 (being the one- 
half of 53,000,000 in the valley) will be the amount of the rural 
population ; so that it must receive 18,500,000 in addition to the 



100 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

10,000,000 it now has. The towns, in the same time, will have 
an increase of 26,000,000, in addition to the 500,000 now in 
them. Where will these towns-be, and in what proportion will 
they possess the 26,500,000 inhabitants ? 

These are interesting questions, and not so impracticable of 
an approximately correct solution as, at first blush, they may 
seem. 

One of them will be either St. Louis or Alton. Everybody 
will be ready to admit that. Still more beyond the reach of 
doubt or cavil is Cincinnati. We might name also Pittsburgh 
and Louisville ; but we trust that our readers, who have followed 
us through our former articles, are ready to concur in the 
opinion that the greatest city of the Mississippi basin wdl be 
either Cincinnati or the town near the mouth of the Missouri, 
be it Alton or St. Louis. Within our period of forty-seven 
years, we have no doubt it will bo Cincinnati. She is now in 
the midst of a population so great and so thriving, and, on the 
completion of the Miami canal, which will be within two years, 
she will so monopolize the exchange commerce at that end of the 
canal between the river and lake regions, that it is not reasona- 
ble to expect that she can be overtaken by her AYestern rival for 
half a century. 

But such has been the influx of settlers within the last few 
years to the lake region, and so decided has become the tendency 
of the production of the upper and middle regions of the great 
valley to seek a market at and through the lakes, that we can 
no longer withstand the conviction that, even within the short 
period of forty-seven years, a town will grow up on the lake 
border greater than Cincinnati. The following facts, it is 
believed, will force the same conviction to our readers : 

The States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, are bordered by both 
lake and river. All have large river accommodation, but 
Illinois has it to an unrivaled extent, whereas it has but one 
lake port. 

Now let us see what has been the relative and positive growth 
of the river region and lake region of these States, from 1830 
to 1840. Southern Ohio, including all south of the National 
road, and the counties north of that road which touch the Ohio 
river, had, in 1830, 550,000 inhabitants, and in 1810 730,000 ; 
showing an increase of 180,000 — equal to 33-J per cent. North- 
ern Ohio, in 1830, numbered but 390,000, which in 1810 had 
increased to 805,000; exhibiting an increase of 415,000, or 105 
per cent. In 1830, Southern Ohio had 160,000 more than 
Northern Ohio ; whereas, in 1840, the latter excelled the former 
75,000. The preponderance of the lake region has not been 
owing to the superiority of its soil, or the beauty of its surface; 
for, in these respects, it is inferior to its Southern rival. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 101 

Let us now see how the river and lake regions of Indiana com- 
pare, in 1830 and 1840. The National road is the dividing line : 

Southern Indiana bad in 1830 252,000 

Northern Indiana had in 1830.... 8'>,000 

Southern Indiana had in 1840 397.000 

Northern Indiana had in 1840 278.000 

Southern Indiana, in 1830 252,0001 r ■ ,,- nnn - Q , 

.4 « <. ibii) <j<iy i\qq > uain I4o,uoo, or os per cent. 

Northern Indiana had in 1S30 80.000 \ Showing a gain of 1S9,000, or 

" "1840 278,000/ 212 per cent. 

Such has been the rapidity of settlement of the northern 
counties of Indiana, for the three years since the census was 
taken, that we cannot doubt that the north has nearly over- 
taken, in positive numbers, the south half. 

Illinois exhibits the prefei'ence given for the lake region in a 
still more striking manner. A line drawn along the north 
boundaries of Edgar and Coles counties, and thence direct to 
the town of Quincy, on the Mississippi, will divide the State 
into two nearly equal parts. The three counties of Morgan, 
Sangamon, and Macon, we divide equally, and give two-thirds of 
Adams to the north and one-third to the south. 

Southern Illinois had in 1830 122,732 

Northern Illinois had in 1830 33,852 

Southern Illinois had in 1840 242,873 

Northern Illinois had in 1840 232,222 

Southern Illinois, in 1830 122,7321 Showing 1 a gain of 120,141, equal 

1S40 242,873 f to 97 per cent. 

Northern Illinois had in 1830 33,852 \ Showing a gain of 198,370, equal 

1840 232,222) to 5Sb per cent. 

There can be no doubt with those who know the course of 
immigration that Northern Illinois, at this time, contains many 
thousands more than Southern Illinois. 

It may be said that the lake region of these States, being of 
more recent settlement, and having more vacant land, has, 
chiefly on that account, increased more than the river region. 
This might account for a higher ratio, but it would not account 
for a greater amount of increase. For instance: the State of 
New York, between 1820 and 1830, had a greater amount of 
increase than any Western State, though most of them increased 
in a far higher ratio. So, by the census of 1840, it appears that 
the amount of increase of Ohio for the ten years previous was 
about three times as great as that of Michigan, although the 
ratio of increase of Michigan was more than nine times as hio-h 
as that of Ohio. 

Let us compare, then, the amount of increase of the lake and 
river regions of these States : 



102 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



1 



Northern Ohio 413,000 

Increase from 1S30 to 1S40 of-! " Indiana 189.000 

Illinois 198,370 



800,370 

f Southern Ohio 180,000 

Increase from 1830 to 1840 of ■{ " Indiana 145,000 

( " Illinois 120,141 

445,141 

Arkansas and Michigan, were it not that the latter has the 
advantage of not holding slaves, would afford almost a perfect 
illustration of the preference given to the lake region over the 
river country. Each has extraordinary advantages of naviga- . 
tion of its peculiar kind. No State in the valley has as extensive 
river navigation as Arkansas, and no State can claim to rival 
Michigan in extent of navigable lake coast. 

In 1830, Michigan had a population of. 32,538 

» Arkansas " " 30,388 

In 1840, Michigan numbered 212 276 

" Arkansas " 97,578 

These facts exhibit the difference in favor of the lake country 
sufficient to satisfy the candid inquirer that there must be potent 
causes in operation to produce such results. Some of these 
causes are apparent, and others have been little understood or 
appreciated. The staple exports, wheat and flour, have for 
years so notoriously found their best markets at the lake towns, 
that every cultivator, who reasons at all, has come to know the 
advantage of having his farm as near as possible to lake navi- 
gation. This has, for some years past, brought immigrants to 
the lake country from the river region of these States, and from 
the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which for- 
merly sent their immigrants mostly to the river borders. The 
river region, too, not being able to compete with its northern 
neighbor in the production of wheat, and being well adapted to 
the growth of stock, has of late gone more into this department 
of husbandry. This business, in some portions, almost brings 
the inhabitants to a purely pastoral state of society, in which 
large bodies of land are of necessity used by a small number of 
inhabitants. These causes are obviously calculated to give a 
dense population to the lake country, and a comparatively sparse 
settlement to the river country. There are other causes not so 
obvious, but not less potent or enduring. Of these, the superior 
accessibility of the lake country from the great northern hives 
of emigration, New England and New York, is first deserving 
attention. By means of the Erie canal to Oswego and Buffalo, 
and the railway from Boston to Buffalo, with its radiating 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 103 

branches, these States are brought within a few hours' ride of 
our great central lake; and at an expense of time and money 
so small as to offer but slight impediment to the removal of 
home and household gods. The lakes, too, are about being 
traversed by a class of vessels, to be propelled by steam and 
wind, called Ericsson propellers, which will carry immigrants 
with certainty and safety, and at greatly reduced expense. 

European emigration hither, which first was counted b}' its 
annual thousands, then by its tens of thousands, has at length 
swelled to its hundred thousands, in the ports of New York 
and Quebec. These are both but appropriate doors to the lake 
country. It is clear, then, that the lake portion will be more 
populous than the river division of the great valle} 7 . This is 
one reason why the former should build up and sustain larger 
towns than the latter. 

It has been proved that an extensive and increasing portion 
of the river region seeks an outlet for its surplus productions 
through the lakes. In addition to the proof given on that sub- 
ject, we will compare the exports of breadstuff's and provisions 
of New Orleans and Cleveland — the former for the year begin- 
ning 1st of September, 1841, and ending 81st August, 1842; 
and the latter for the season of canal navigation, in 1842. All 
the receipts of Cleveland, by canal, are estimated as exports, 
as there is no doubt that she receives, coastwise and by wagon, 
more than enough to feed her people. The exports from JSew 
Orleans of the enumerated articles, and their price, are as stated 
in No. 4, vol. 7, of this magazine. Of the articles, then, of 
flour, pork, bacon, lard, beef, whisky, corn, and wheat — 

ifew Orleans exported to the value of. $4,446,9S9 

Cleveland " " 4,431,739 

The other articles of breadstuff's and provisions received at 
New Orleans during that year from the interior are of small 
amount, and obviously not sufficient for the consumption of the 
city. Not so with Cleveland. The other articles of grain and 
provisions, shipped last year from this port, added to the above, 
will throw ihe balance decidedly in her favor. If we suppose, 
what can not but be true, that all the other ports of the 
upper lakes sent eastward as much as Cleveland, Ave have the 
startling fact that the lake country, but yesterday brought under 
our notice, already sends abroad more than twice the amount of 
human food that is shipped from the great exporting city of 
New Orleans, the once-vaunted sole outlet of the Mississippi 
valley. Another striking fact, in favor of the position that on 
the lakes are to be the leading commercial cities of our valley, 
is the growth of Cleveland, compared with Portsmouth. When 



104 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

the Ohio canal was completed, that portion of the State traversed 
by it, lying nearest to Portsmouth, was superior in population 
and productiveness to that which was nearest Cleveland. 
Portsmouth is at the river end of the canal, and Cleveland at 
the lake end : 

Portsmouth, including the township hi which it is situated, num- 
bered, in 1830 1,464 

In 1840 1.844 

Increase of Portsmouth, including the township, in ten years 380 

Cleveland village numbered, in 1830 1,076 

" city, including Ohio* City, in 1840 7,648 

Increase of Cleveland in ten years 7,572 

The ease of Alton and Chicago is calculated to illustrate the 
same position. The former is so finely situated on the Missis- 
sippi, just above the entrance of the turbulent Missouri, at the 
best point for concentrating the river trade on all sides, and 
doing the business of one oi the finest and best settled portions 
of Lllinois, that we have thought it might yet excel St. Louis, 
and perhaps rival Cincinnati. The country in its rear was set- 
tled long before that lying back of Chicago, and Alton, in 
consequence, sooner became an important commercial point. 
How many inhabitants it had in 1830, we have at hand no means 
of ascertaining. Certain it is that, at that time, it was far 
more populous than Chicago : 

In 1840, Alton numbered 2,340 

Chicago " 4,470 

Two short canals — one of about one hundred miles, connect- 
ing the Illinois canal with the Mississippi, at or near the mouth 
of Rock river; and the other of about one hundred and 
seventy-five miles, connecting the southern termination of 
the Wabash and Erie canal, at Terre Haute, with the Missis- 
sippi at Alton — would, with the canals already finished or in 
progress, secure to the lakes not less, probably, than three- 
fourths of all the external trade of the river valley With the 
Wabash and Erie, and the Miami canal brought fairly into ope- 
ration, the lakes will make a heavy draft on the trade of the 
river valley; and every canal, and railroad, and good highway, 
carried from the lakes, or lake improvements, into that valley, 
will add to the draft. The lake towns will then not only have 
a denser population in the region immediately about them, and 
mpn >polize all the trade of that region, but they will have at 

*Oiiio City is separated from Cleveland only by a Barrow stream, and has grown 

since lboO. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 105 

least half the trade of the river region. They will bo nearer 
and more accessible to the great marts of trade and commerce 
of the old States and the old world, and this advantage will be 
growing, in consequence of the progressive removal of impedi- 
ments to navigation between the lakes and the ocean. 

The facts we have adduced, taken altogether, seem conclusive 
in favor of the lake towns. As a body, they come out of the 
investigation decidedly triumphant. But how shall we decide 
on their relative merits? There are several whose citizens 
would claim pre-eminence for each — Oswego, Buffalo, Cleveland, 
the Maumee town (be it Maumee City or Toledo), Detroit, and 
Chicago. Unless we have failed in our opening article, New 
Orleans, Montreal, and Quebec, although destined greatly to 
increase in size and wealth, may be left out of the contest. 

Oswego has a fine position as a point of shipment between 
the lakes and the Eastern States ; and, on the completion of the 
enlarged Welland canal, she will probably gain rapidly on Buffalo 
in amount of goods forwarded West and produce of the lakes 
sent to the Hudson. Her water-power will enable her to com- 
pete successfully with Bochester in the manufacture of flour, and 
it must, before many years, be used extensively in other manu- 
factures. As a point for the wholesale or jobbing of goods, she 
will be inferior to Buffalo. But both towns are too near and too 
convenient to New York and Boston to become great marts for 
the sale of European and Eastern manufactures. Buffalo, in her 
suburb of Black Bock, has an almost exhaustless water-power, 
which, long within the period of forty-seven years, will make her 
a considerable manufacturing town. If the Erie canal enlarge- 
ment should be delayed many years after the completion of the 
Welland canal, it would not surprise us to see Oswego overtake 
Buffalo in size and business. 

Buffalo has a cramped harbor, and, like Oswego, she has but a 
small country in- her rear to sustain her trade. Her position for 
carrying on foreign trade, after the enlargement of the Welland 
canal, will be less favorable than Cleveland, Maumee, Detroit, or 
Chicago. But, before entering on the comparison of Buffalo 
and Cleveland, it will be well to lay down some principles that 
may be reasonably supposed to control or influence their future 
growth. And first, it may be asserted that a position favorable 
to an interchange of productions of a large country lying about 
it, is more advantageous than a situation which merely favors 
the passage of a great amount of productions through it. Bos- 
ton and Charleston will illustrate this principle. The former 
exchanges, in her own market, the productions gathered into it 
from the coast, from the interior, and from foreign countries. 
Charleston is far less a gathering point of commodities, but has 
a much lai-ger value passing through the hands of her merchants : 
7 



106 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Boston, between 1830 and 1840, increased 33,611 

Charleston, " " " decreased 1,628 

Other causes, no doubt, aided in this result; but that under 
consideration we believe to have been the chief. 

Second. While a country is new, the first exchanges will be of 
agricultural products of one climate for those of a different 
climate, and of agricultural products for manufactured articles 
of first necessity. As society progresses in wealth, in addition 
to these articles, finer fabrics and of greater variety become the 
subject of exchange ; so that when its condition approximates 
that of England, much of its exchangeable capital comes to be 
composed of the highly wrought productions of the various 
cities — each mainly engaged in its own peculiar production, and 
therefore dependent on all the others for all its articles of con- 
sumption, except the one article of its own fabrication. 

Let us apply these principles. Buffalo has the advantage of a 
greater transit of produce and goods. In the former, however, 
she is not very much in advance, and Cleveland is rapidly gain- 
ing upon her. In proportion to her population, Cleveland is 
already far ahead. As to goods passing to the upper lakes from 
the old States and Europe, Buffalo will divide chiefly Avith Oswego 
the advantages of their receipt and shipment up the lakes. Hers, 
for some time to come, will be the lion's share — at least until the 
completion of the Canadian improvements. But these goods, 
though of great value, will employ no great amount of tonnage, 
especially when sugar, molasses, cotton, rice, and tobacco, shall 
be sent to the lakes by the Miami and Illinois canals, as will 
soon be the case. 

Long within the period under consideration, the position of 
Cleveland will be much more favorable for concentrating the 
business of the surrounding country than that of Buffalo. 
Canada will, before that time, form a part of our commercial 
community, whether she be associated with us in the government 
or not. She will then have about five millions of people. The 
American shores of the lakes lying above the latitude of Cleve- 
land will be still more populous. 

Cleveland is the lake port for the great manufacturing hive at 
the head of the Ohio river — so made by the Mahoning canal, 
which connects her with Pittsburgh. She commands, and she 
will long command, by means of her five hundred miles of canal 
and slack-water navigation, the trade of a part of Western 
Pennsylvania, most of Western Virginia, and nearly all the east 
half of the State of Ohio, in the intercourse of their inhabitants 
with the lake coasts, the Eastern States, Canada, and Europe. 
Her position is handsome; and, although her water-power is 
small, the low price of coal will enable her to sustain herself as 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 107 

a respectable manufacturing town. Her harbor, like that of 
Buffalo, though easy of entrance, is not sufficiently capacious. If 
coal should not be found on Lake Huron, more accessible to 
navigation than the beds on the canal south of Cleveland, this 
article will greatly increase her trade with the other lake ports. 
It is now sold on her wharves at eight cents per bushel. 

A glance at a map of the country will suffice to show that 
Buffalo is not well situated to be a place for the exchange of 
agricultural productions of the cold regions for those of the warm 
regions of the valley. In that respect Cleveland, though not 
unrivaled, is clearly in a better position than Buffalo. As a 
point for exchanging the products of the field for manufactured 
goods, Buffalo will not probably for any long time have the 
advantage of Cleveland. Such traders as live within the influ- 
ence of the canals and rivers that pour their surplus products 
into Cleveland, and stop short of New York and Boston, will, it 
seems to us, be more likely to purchase in Cleveland than in 
Buffalo. Not every man who supplies a neighborhood with 
store-goods relishes a voyage on the sometimes tempest-tossed 
waters of the lake ; and, as we before remarked, Buffalo now 
being but a few hours' ride from New York and Boston, by a 
pleasant and safe conveyance, will hardly stop many purchasers 
of goods from those great markets. On the completion of the 
Canadian canals, Cleveland will have the advantage of Buffalo 
in foreign trade, for the following reasons : Her articles of 
export will be cheaper, and by that time, as we believe, more 
abundant. By means of her canals and roads Cleveland is a 
primary gathering-point of these articles. Not so Buffalo. To 
arrive at her storehouses, these products must be shipped from 
the storehouses of other ports up the lakes, where they must be 
presumed to bear nearly the same price as at Cleveland. The 
cost of this shipment, together with a profit on it, will then be 
added; and, by so much, enhance their price in Buffalo. A ves- 
sel entering Lake Erie by the Welland canal, seeking a cargo for 
a foreign port, would therefore clearly prefer going to the head 
of the market, where it could be bought at the cheapest rate. 
If the difference in price of exportable products, between the 
market at Buffalo and the maket at Cleveland, is such as to war- 
rant the payment of a freight to Buffalo, and the cost of a 
transhipment there to the foreign vessel, there can be no doubt 
of its being the interest of the foreign vessel to proceed directly 
to Cleveland for her cargo ; and so to any other considerable 
market on Lake Brie, and probably the lakes above. It seems 
likely, therefore, that within our allotted period of forty-seven 
years Cleveland will be larger than Buffalo or Oswego. 

Is it probable that, within the period under consideration, 
Cleveland will have a successful rival in Maumee, Detroit, or 



108 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Chicago? It will be proper, on account of its comparative 
obscurity and the peculiarity of its position, for us to explain in 
regard to Maumee. 

The estuary of the Maumee river receives the tide of Lake 
Erie, and the waters of the river, at a point thirteen miles above 
its mouth. This estuary forms a harbor of Lake Erie, thirteen 
miles long, with a navigable channel of about one hundred rods. 
Its depth, in a low stage of the lake, is from six and a half to 
twenty-four feet. It is entered by a wide channel through the bay, 
having in its shoalest part 8.25 feet when the lake is in its lowest 
stage. On the southwest end of this harbor Maumee City and 
Perrysburg are situated, the former on the north and the latter 
on the south bank. Both are on the same plane, sixty-three feet 
above the harbor. Eight miles below, on the north bank, is 
Toledo, most of it on a plane about forty-five feet high ; and 
three or four miles below Toledo is Manhattan, elevated in its 
highest part about twenty-five feet above the water. Their 
population, respectively, including the civil township, was, 
according to the census of 1840 — Maumee City, 1,290; Perrys- 
burg, 1,065; Toledo, 2,053; Manhattan, 282. Each of these 
places has access to the canal by a side-cut and flight of locks. 
It is not our purpose to decide on their relative merits ; but for 
convenience, and because it is the name of the harbor, we will 
call the successful point Maumee. 

The contest is now fairly narrowed down to Cleveland, Mau- 
mee, Detroit, and Chicago. "Which of these will be greatest in 
1890? We have shown in a previous article (No. 2 of this 
series) that the Miami canal route will command the Eastern and 
European trade of Kentucky, most of Tennessee, large portions 
of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and small portions of Missouri, 
. Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. So long, then, as this East- 
ern and European trade shall continue of paramount importance 
to the great country embraced by the description above, as con- 
trolled by the Miami canal, so long must the point most favorably 
(Situated at its lake termination have the advantage of the other 
lake towns. We have also shown, in th« same article, that the 
Interior exchanges, the exclusive home-trade of the North 
American valley, between the lake regions of the north and the 
.river regions of the south, will be chiefly carried on through the 
.same Miami canal. Of the towns now under comparison, Maumee 
As the smallest and Detroit the largest. This, in the minds of 
,the superficial, will be taken as conclusive in favor of the latter. 
The claim, in favor of a town just emerging from the forest to 
.rival,, at .a future time, an already populous city, is usually met 
try ridicule from such persons; and, in general, is treated with 
little attention or respect by any class. We dare say that when 
the people of the city of old and renowned York were informed 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 109 

that, in the wilds of America, some settlers had named their col- 
lection of rude houses New York, they felt no other emotion 
than contempt, and treated the presumptuous ambition of the 
settlers with derision. It is probable that the settlers of old Bos- 
ton held in like contempt the assumption of the name of their 
town by those who planted the capital of New England. Who, 
forty-seven years ago, would not have ridiculed the opinion, if 
any one had been visionary enough to express it, that, within 
that time, there would grow up in the valley of the Ohio a 
city containing fifty thousand inhabitants; and that, within the 
same period, that part of the Northwestern territory, now com- 
posing the State of Ohio, would contain nearly two millions of 
people ? We then had, as a basis of increase, but four millions; 
whereas it is now over eighteen millions — and, including Canada, 
near twenty millions. For the past forty-seven years, our 
growth has been from four millions to near twenty millions. 
During the next forty-seven years it will be, according to our 
estimate, from near twenty millions to seventy-seven millions j 
or, according to the more elaborate and probably more correct 
estimate of Professor Tucker, fifty-five millions. This increase 
will certainly make it necessary that many towns, now small, 
should become great; and sensible men, when contemplating 
their probable destiny for half a century in advance, will look at 
the natural and artificial advantages of our lake towns, rather 
than at the few thousands, more or less, of the present popula- 
tion. The towns under consideration are all destined to be large. 
The leading advantages of Cleveland have been already stated. 
Detroit has a pleasant site and a noble harbor. A few McAdam 
roads, leading north, northwest, and west, into the interior, 
would give her the direct trade of a large and fertile portion of 
Michigan. Until such roads, or a reasonably good substitute, 
are made, the railways leading north and west will, at least while 
they are new and in good order, make the chief gathering points 
of trade at their interior terminations and at convenient points 
on their line. Pontiac, Tpsilanti, Ann Arbor, and other towns 
west, will cut off from Detroit, and center in themselves the 
direct trade with the farmers, which, with good wagon roads, 
without the railways, would have centered in Detroit. One 
train of cars will now bring to her warehouses what would have 
been brought to her stores by one hundred wagons. These 
wagons would have carried back store-goods and the products of 
Detroit mechanics, whereas these will now be bought in the inte- 
rior towns. Most of the money borrowed by Michigan, and for 
which she is so largely in debt, has been expended with a view 
to center the trade of the State mainly in Detroit and Monroe; 
but we much doubt whether the effect of the railways constructed 
for that purpose will not be the reverse of what was anticipated 



110 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

by their projectors. The effect of the Erie and Kalamazoo rail- 
way, from Toledo to Adrian, has been to convert a small cluster 
of houses at the latter place into a flourishing town of near two 
thousand inhabitants ; while at Toledo its effect has been mainly 
perceptible in the filling a few warehouses with produce and 
goods, and leaving its business street nearly deserted of wagons, 
and its hotels almost destitute of any but minute-men travelers. 
"We do not believe that machines so expensive and so compli- 
cated in their construction and operation as railways can be 
sustained in an agricultural country so new and sparsely settled 
as Michigan. But whether this is a correct view or not matters 
little to Detroit, if, as we suppose, her railways will but substi- 
tute trains of cars, passing through to her warehouses, for the 
throng of wagons that, but for her railways, would have crowded 
her broad avenue. The extent of country that will find in 
Detroit its most convenient point of exchanges is not very great, 
yet sufficient when well settled and improved to sustain her in a 
considerable advance beyond her present size and business. 

If we now narrow down our comparison by leaving out 
Detroit, we trust we shall be justified by our impartial readers. 
Cleveland, Maumee, and Chicago, only remain to contest the 
prize. Of these, Maumee alone has a harbor capacious enough 
to accommodate the commerce of a great city. Good harbors 
may be made, without a very heavy cost, at Cleveland and 
Chicago, either by excavating the low grounds bordering their 
present harbors, or by break-waters and piers in the lakes out- 
side. Some expenditure will also be needed to deepen the 
entrance into Maumee harbor and to remove obstructions within 
it. In water-power Maumee has greatly the advantage over her 
rivals. Chicago has and she can have none. Cleveland has but 
a small amount; whereas Maumee has it to an extent unrivaled 
by any town on the lake borders, above Buffalo — and it is so 
placed as to possess the utmost availability. Along her harbor 
for thirteen miles the canal passes on the margin of the high bank 
that overlooks it. This canal — a magnificent mill-race, averaging 
near seven feet deep, and seventy feet wide at the water line — 
is fed from the Maumee river, seventeen miles above the head 
of the harbor, and is carried down on the level of low water in 
the river above, for twenty-two miles, to a point two miles 
below the head of the harbor, where it stands on a table land, 
sixty-three feet above the harbor. Descending, then, by a lock, 
seven feet, the next level is two miles long, and stands fifty-six 
feet above the harbor. Descending again, by a lock, seven feet, 
the level below is three and a half miles long, and stands forty- 
nine feet above the harbor. Again descending, within the city 
of Toledo, by four locks, thirty-four feet, the next and last level 
is nearly five miles long, and stands fifteen feet above the harbor 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. Ill 

At many points of these thirteen miles, the water may be used 
conveniently from the canal to the harbor ; and, at most of these 
poinds, it may be used directly on the harbor. The Board of 
Public Works, in their last report, say: "From the experience 
the Board have had as to the quantity of water required to pro- 
pel one pair of four and a half feet mill-stones, with all the 
labor-saving machinery necessary for the manufacture of super- 
fine flour, they are fully of opinion that there will be power 
sufficient, that can be used on these levels, to propel two hundred 
and twenty-five pairs of stone." The lowest estimate for the 
dryest season allows it this amount of power. At other times, 
the amount is so great that, for all practicable purposes for 
many years to come, it may be set down as without limit. The 
current occasioned by the use of the great power estimated by 
the Board would not be one mile an hour. If more should be 
used, so as to occasion a current of one mile and a half an hour, 
the obstruction to navigation would be rather nominal than real. 
The down-freights for many years will be three or four times as 
heavy as the up-freights. The current, then, would aid the 
movement of three or four tons where it would hinder the move- 
ment of one ton. If, at some future day, the water furnished 
during the dry seasons should not be sufficient for the machinery 
then needed at this point, steam may be used temporarily during 
the lowest stage of water. Coal will be afforded at ten cents 
per bushel; and wood, for many years, will not cost more than 
$1 50 to $2 00 per cord. Will this be a good point for the use 
of water-power? This will depend on its facilities for procur- 
ing raw materials and distributing the manufactured articles to 
consumers. As to facilities for procuinng wheat for the manu- 
facture of flour, there can be, as all will admit who know the 
country within reach of the canals, no better point in the States. 
Sheep are so rapidly multiplying in Indiana and Illinois, and are 
already so abundant in the Miami country of Ohio, that a sup- 
ply of wool toan extent beyond any probable demand for its 
manufacture may be safely anticipated. As to cotton, it has 
been proved that the Miami canal is the best channel for its 
import to the lakes. From Florence, in Alabama, it may be 
brought to the factory on the Maumee by a course three hundred 
miles shorter than its usual route to New Orleans. Should the 
Tennessee river fail to furnish enough cotton, the Arkansas, and 
the Mississippi above the mouth of the Arkansas, will be able to 
supply any additional demand. For the distribution of the 
manufactured goods, the whole West is easily accessible by 
means of lakes, canals, and rivers. 

As a point for manufacturers and mechanics, the aids and 
facilities above mentioned give Maumee an incontestable supe- 
riority over Cleveland and Chicago. Let us now compare their 



112 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

commercial advantages. Those of Cleveland have been already 
set forth to some extent, comparing her claims with those of 
Buffalo. In the exchange of agricultural products of a warm 
and of a cold climate, Cleveland, by her canals and her connec- 
tion with the Ohio, can claim south, as against the Miami canal, 
no farther than Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. 
Maumee will supply the towns on the Lakes Erie, Huron, and 
probably Ontario, with cotton, sugar, molasses, rum (may its 
quantity be small), rice, tobacco, hemp (perhaps), oranges, 
lemons, figs, and, at some future day, such naval stores as come 
from the pitch-pine regions of Tennessee, Mississippi, and 
Louisiana. Chicago will furnish a supply of the same articles 
to Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, when that lake becomes 
accessible to her navigation, and perhaps the northern portion 
of Lake Huron. How important these commodities are in 
modern commerce need not be enlarged on in a magazine whose 
readers are mostly intelligent merchants. During the forty- 
seven years under consideration, the countries to be supplied 
with these articles from Maumee will continue to be more popu- 
lous than those depending on Chicago for their supply. This 
position seems too obvious to need proof. It is clear, then, that 
as a point of exchange of agricultural products of different cli- 
mates, Maumee has advantages over Chicago — the only place on 
the lakes that can set up any pretensions of rivalry in this 
branch of trade. 

What are the relative merits of these towns for the exchange 
of agricultural products for the manufactures of Europe and the 
Eastern States ? The claims of Cleveland, in this respect, have 
already been considered; and to some extent, also, those of 
Maumee. The control of Cleveland, south and southeast, 
embi^aces a country of about 40,000 square miles ; being a quar- 
ter larger than Ireland. For early spring supplies, and light 
goods, this domain may be invaded from Philadelphia and Balti- 
more ; but for the shipment east, and the bulk of goods from 
New York and Europe, it belongs legitimately to Cleveland. 

Maumee will have in this trade the chief control of not less 
than 100,000 square miles— say 12,000 in Ohio, 30,000 in Ken- 
tucky, 80,000 in Indiana, 10,000 in Illinois, 13,000 in Tennessee, 
5,0.00 in Mississippi and Alabama, and 5,000 in Michigan — to say 
nothing of her claims on small portions of Missouri and Arkan- 
sas. This domain is half as large as the kingdom of France and 
twice as fertile. The Miami canal, connecting Maumee with 
Cincinnati, will, with that part of the Wabash and Erie which 
forms the common trunk after their junction, be two hundred 
and thirty -five miles long. The Wabash and Erie canal, from 
Muamee to Terre Haute, will be three hundred miles long. Of 
this, all but thirty-six miles, at its northern extremity, will be in 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 113 

operation the present season. By means of these canals, and 
the rivers with which they communicate, great part of this 
extensive region will enjoy the advantage of a cheap water 
transport for its rapidly increasing surplus. 

Chicago, on the completion of the Illinois canal, may com- 
mand, in its exchange of agricultural for manufactured pro- 
ducts, an extent of territory as large as that controlled hy 
Maumee. Admitting it to be larger, and of this our readers must 
judge for themselves, it does not seem to us probable that within 
the forty-seven years it can even approximate in population or 
wealth to the comparatively old and well-peopled territory that 
comes within the range of the commercial influence of Maumee. 
"We have not sufficient data on which to calculate the extent of 
country that will come under the future commercial power of 
Chicago. That it is to be very great seems probable from the 
fine position of that port in reference to the lake, and an almost 
interminable country southwest, west, and northwest of it. An 
extension of the Illinois canal to the mouth of Rock river seems 
destined to give her the control of the Eastern trade throughout 
the whole extent of the upper Mississippi, except what she now 
has by means of the Illinois river. She will also probably par- 
ticipate with Maumee in the lake trade with the Missouri river 
and St. Louis. On the whole, we deem Chicago alone, of all the 
lake towns, entitled to dispute future pre-eminence with Mau- 
mee. The time may come, after the period under consideration, 
when the extent and high improvement of the country making 
Chicago its mart for commercial operations, may enable it at 
least to sustain the second place ainong the great towns of the 
North American valley, if not to dispute pre-eminence with 
the first. 

When we properly consider the future populousness of our 
great valley, the tendency of modern improvements lo build up 
large towns, the great and increasing inclination of population 
and trade to and through the lakes, and the decided advantages 
which Maumee possesses over any other lake port, we need not 
fear being over sanguine in anticipating for the leading town on 
that port a growth unrivaled by any city whose history has been 
recorded. 

The conclusions to which we have come, in this and the pre- 
ceding articles on internal trade, are not expected to be 
universally or generally acceptable. Many of them run counter 
to the hopes and preconceived opinions of too many persons for 
us to expect that they will be considered with candor, or judged 
with impartiality. The facts therein contained will be encoun- 
tered with less alacrity. On these we rely. For these we ask 
a dispassionate and fair examination. If other and different 
conclusions are deducible from them than those we have drawn, 



114 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

it would give us pleasure to acknowledge our error and correct 
it. But if, after a thorough examination of the subject, we have 
gone beyond the anticipations of men who, with more ability, 
have bestowed much less thought on it, let them not condemn 
merely because our conclusions seem to them extravagant ; but 
let them examine for themselves, or, if they will not do that, let 
them hesitate before they pass a hasty judgment on what we 
have investigated with the utmost care, and with an earnest 
desire to arrive at the truth. J. W. S. 



Number IV. — 1848. 

COMMEKCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 

OUR CITIES — ATLANTIC AND INTERIOR. 

All people take pride in their cities. In them naturally con- 
centrate the great minds and the wealth of the nation. There 
the arts that adorn life are cultivated, and from them flows out 
the knowledge that gives its current of thought to the national 
mind. 

The United States, until recently, have had large cities in the 
hope rather than in the reality. It is but a few years since our 
largest city reached a population of one hundred thousand. 
Long before that period sagacious men saw, in the rapid growth 
of the country and the aptitude of our people for commerce, 
that such positions as those occupied by Philadelphia and New 
York must rapidly grow up to be great cities. This, however, 
was by no means the common belief in this country; and our 
transatlantic brethren treated with undisguised ridicule the idea 
that these places could even rival in magnitude the leading cities 
of their own countries. New York is now sometimes called 
the London of America. Not that those calling her so suppose 
she will ever come up to that mammoth in size and importance, 
but because she holds in the New World the relative rank which 
London holds on the Old Continent. 

It is believed that few persons, at this time, have a sufficiently 
high appreciation of the future grandeur of New York ; and 
yet fewer can be found who doubt that she will always continue 
to be the commercial capital of America. If this should be her 
destiny, the imagination could hardly set a limit to her future 
growth and grandeur. It would be presumptuous to say that 
her population might not reach five millions within the next 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 115 

century and a half. Of the few persons who have doubted her 
continual supremacy, most have given the benefit of the doubt 
to New Orleans. This outport of the great central valley of 
North America was believed to command a destiny, when this 
valley should become well peopled, that might eclipse the island 
city of the Hudson. 

Some twenty years ago, the writer, then living in a southeastern 
State, was convinced that the greatest city must, in the nature 
of things, at a not very distant day, grow up in the interior of 
the continent. Of this opinion he thinks he was the inventor, 
and, for many years, the sole proprietor. If it had been the 
subject of a patent, no one would have been found to dispute 
his claim to the exclusive right to make and vend (if that could 
be said to be vendible which no one would be prevailed on to 
take as a gift). That such an opinion should appear absurd and 
ridiculous may very well be credited by most people, who con- 
sider it not much less so now. The largest city of the interior 
was then Cincinnati, having scarcely 20,000 inhabitants; and 
the sum total of all the towns in the great valley scarcely 
exceeded 50,000. St. Louis at that time had but 5,000, and 
Buffalo about the same number. Here, then, was a basis very 
small for so large an anticipation. Who could believe that St. 
Louis, with 5,000 people, could possibly, within the short period 
of 150 years, become greater than New York, with a population 
of near 200,000 ? But what seemed most ridiculous of all was 
that the future rival of the great commercial emporium should 
be placed a thousand miles from the ocean, where neither a ship 
of war nor a Liverpool packet could ever be expected to arrive. 

Since 1828, some changes of magnitude have taken place; 
and the writer's exclusive right might now be questioned. There 
are now other men, considered sane men, who believe the great 
city of the nation is to be west of the mountains, and quite 
away from the salt sea. Governor Bebb, in a late address before 
the Young Men's Library Association of Cincinnati, expressed 
his decided belief that Cincinnati would, in the course of a cen- 
tury, become " the greatest agricultural, manufacturing, and 
commercial emporium on the continent." There are other men 
now, not much less distinguished for knowledge and forecast 
than Governor Bebb, who entertain the same belief. What has 
wrought this change of opinion? Time, whose business is to 
unfold truth and expose error, has given proofs which can no 
longer be blinked. The interior towns have commenced a 
growth so gigantic that men must believe there is a power of 
corresponding magnitude urging them forward — a power yet 
in its infancy, but unfolding its energies with astonishing 
rapidity. 



116 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



Let us make some comparisons of the leading Eastern and 
Western cities. New York was commenced nearly 200 years 
before it increased to 100,000 people. Cincinnati, according to 
Governor Bebb, has now, fifty years from its commencement, 
100,000 inhabitants. Boston was 200 years in acquiring its first 
50,000. New York, since 1790, when it numbered 33,131, has 
had an average duplication every fifteen years. This would 
make her population in 1850, 530,096. This is very near what 
it will be, including her suburb, Brooklyn. 

Cincinnati has, on the average, since 1800, when it had 750, 
doubled her numbers every seven years. 



NEW YORK. 



1790 33,131 

1805 66,262 



1820 132,524 I 1S50 

1835 265,048 | 



.530,096 



1800. 
1807. 
1814. 



750 
1,500 
3,000 



CINCINNATI. 

1821 6,000 

1828 12,000 

1835 24,000 



1842 48,000 

1S49 96,000 



It appears from this table that, on the average of fifty years, 
Cincinnati, the leading interior town, has doubled her popula- 
tion every seven years ; while New York, on the average of 
sixty years, has scarcely doubled hers in every period of fifteen 
years. If New York is compared to Cincinnati during the same 
fifty years, it will be seen that the period of her duplication 
averages over fifteen years. She had, in 1800, 60,189. Doubling 
this every fifteen years, she should have, in 1850, nearly 650,000. 
This number will exceed her actual population more than 100,000, 
whereas Cincinnati in 1850 will certainly exceed 96,000. 

Let us now suppose that, for the next fifty years after 1850, 
the ratio of increase of New York will be such as to make a 
duplication every eighteen years, and that of Cincinnati every 
ten years. New York will commence with about 500,000, which 
will increase by the year 

1868 to 1,000,000 | 1886 to 2,000,000 | 1904 to 4,000,000 

Cincinnati will commence in 1850 with at least 100,000, which 
will double every ten years ; so that in 

18(50 it will be.. 200 , 000 I 18S0 it will be.. 800 , 000 I 1900 it will be..3 , 200 , 000 
1870 " .. 400,000 | 1S90 " ..1,600,000 | 1904 " ..4,066,667 

The resulting figures look very large, and, to most readers, 
will appear extravagant. 

Let us suppose the duplication of New York, for the next 
100 years, to be effected on an average of twenty years, and 
that of Cincinnati of twelve years. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



117 



1350 500,000 

1870 1,000,000 

1850 100,000 

1862 200,000 

1874 400,000 



NEW YOHK IN 

1890 2,000,000 

1910 4,000,000 

CINCINNATI IN 

1886 800,000 

1898 1,600,000 

1910 3,200,000 



1930 8,000,000 

1950 16,000,000 

1922 6,400,000 

1934 12,800.000 

1946 25,600,000 



This looks like carrying the argument to absurdity; but if 
these two leading cities be allowed to represent all the cities in 
their sections respectively, the result of the calculation is not 
unreasonable. It is not beyond possibility, and is not even 
improbable. 

The growth of the leading interior marts, since 1840, has 
been about equal to the average growth of Cincinnati for fifty 
years past. This growth, for the last eight years, according to 
the best in formation to be obtained, has been more than 115 per 
cent., as the following table will show: 



1840. 1848. 

Cincinnati 46,900 95,000 

St. Louis 16.000 45,000 

Louisville 21,000 40,000 

Buffalo 18,000 42,000 

Pittsburgh. 31,000 58,000 

Cleveland 6,000 14,000 

Columbus 6,000 14,000 

Dayton 6,000 14,000 



1840. 1848. 

Detroit.. 9,000 17,000 

Milwaukee 2,000 15,000 

Chicago 5,000 17,000 

Oswego 5,000 11,000 

Rochester 20,000 30,000 

Total 191,000 412,000 



The growth of the exterior cities for the same period has been 
about 38 per cent., according to the following figures : 



1840. 1848. 

New York 312,000 425,000 

Philadelphia 228,000 350,000 

Baltimore 102,000 140,000 

New Orleans 102,000 102.000 

Boston 93,000 130,000 

Charleston 29,000 31,000 



1840. 1848. 

Savannah 11,000 14,000 

Mobile 12,000 12,000 

Brooklyn 36,000 72,000 

Portland 15,000 24,000 

Total 940,000 1,300,000 



The census for 1840 is our authority for that year. For 1848, 
we have late enumerations of most of the cities. The others 
we estimate. 

There are doubtless a few inaccuracies in the detail, but not 
enough to vary the result in any important degree. 

In the aggregate our interior cities, depending for their growth 
on internal trade and home manufacture, increase three times as 
fast as the exterior cities, which carry on nearly all the foreign 



118 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

commerce of the country, and monopolize the home commerce 
of the Atlantic coast. This is a fact of significance. It proves 
that our fertile fields, after supplying food to everybody in 
foreign lands who will buy, and feeding the cities and towns of 
the Atlantic States, have sufficed to feed a rapidly growing town 
population at home. It proves, also, that the Western people 
are not disposed to accept the destiny kindly offered them by 
their Eastern brethren, of confining themselves to the hand- 
work of agriculture — leaving to the old States the whole field 
of machine labor. Although the land on which the people of 
the great valley have but recently entered is new, the civil, 
social, and economical condition of this people is advanced 
nearly to the highest point of the oldest communities. The 
contriving brain and the skillful hand are here in their maturity. 
The raw materials necessary to the artisan and the manufacturer, 
in the production of whatever ministers to comfort and elegance, 
are here. The bulkiness of food and raw materials makes it 
the interest of the artisan and manufacturer to locate himself 
near the place of their production. It is this interest, constantly 
operating, which peoples our Western towns and cities with 
emigrants from the Eastern States and Europe. When food and 
raw materials for manufacture are no longer cheaper in the 
great valley than in the Sates of the Atlantic and the nations of 
Western Europe, then, and not till then, will it cease to be the 
interest of artisans and manufacturers to prefer a location in 
Western towns and cities. This time will probably be about the 
period when the Mississippi shall flow towards its head. 

The chief points for the exchange of the varied productions of 
industry in our Western valley will necessarily give emplo}*ment 
to a great population. Indeed, the locations of our future great 
cities have been made with reference to their commercial capa- 
bilities. Commerce has laid the foundation on which manufac- 
tures have been, to a great extent, instrumental in rearing the 
superstructure. Together, these departments of labor are des- 
tined to build up in our fertile valley the greatest cities of 
the world. J. "W. S. 



Number V. — 1S57. 

In the rapidly developing greatness of North America, it is 
interesting to look to the future and speculate on the most 
probable points of centralization of its commercial and social 
power. I leave out the political element, because, in the long 
run, it will not be very potential, and will wait upon industrial 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 119 

developments. I also omit Mexico, so poor, and so discon- 
nected in her relations to the great body of the continent. 

Including with our nation, as formiug an important part of its 
commercial community, the Canadas and contiguous provinces, 
the center of population, white and black, is a little west of 
Pittsburgh. The movement of this center is north of west, 
about in the direction of Chicago. The center of productive 
power cannot be ascertained, with any degree of precision. We 
know it must be a considerable distance east, and north of the 
center of population. That center, too, is on the grand march 
westward. Both, in their regular progress, will reach Lake 
Michigan. The center of industrial power will touch Lake Erie, 
and possibly, but not probably, the center of population may 
move so far northward as to reach Lake Erie also. Their tend- 
ency will be to come together; but a considerable time will be 
required to bring them into near proximitj^. Will the move- 
ment of these centers be arrested before they reach Lake 
Michigan? I think no one expects to stop eastward of that 
lake j few will claim that it will go far beyond it. Is it not, 
then, as certain as anything in the future can be, that the cen- 
tral power of the continent will move to, and become permanent 
on, the border of the great lakes ? Around these pure waters will 
gather the densest population, and on their borders will grow up 
the best towns and cities. As the centers of population and 
wealth approach and pass Cleveland, that city should swell to 
large size. Toledo will be still nearer the lines of their move- 
ment, and should be more favorably affected by them, as the 
aggregate power of the continent will by that time be greatly 
increased. As these lines move westward towards Chicago, the 
influence of their position will be divided between that city 
and Toledo, distributing benefits according to the degree of 
proximity. 

If we had no foreign commerce, and all other circumstances 
were equal, the greatest cities would grow up along the line of 
the central industrial power, in its westward progress, each new 
city becoming greater than its predecessor, by the amount of 
power accumulated on the continent, for concentration from 
point to point of its progress. But as there are points, 
from one resting-place to another, possessing greatly superior 
advantages for commerce over all others, and near enough the 
center line of industrial power to appropriate the commerce 
which it offers, to these points we must look for our future great 
cities. To become chief of these, there must be united in them 
the best facilities for transport, by water and by land. It is too 
plain to need proof that these positions are occupied by Cleve- 
land, Toledo, and Chicago. 



120 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

But we have a foreign commerce beyond the continent of 
North America, by means of the Atlantic Ocean ; bearing the 
proportion, we will allow, of one to twenty of the domestic 
commerce within the continent. This proportion will seem 
small to persons who have not directed particular attention to 
the subject. It is, nevertheless, within the truth. The proof of 
this is difficult, only because we cannot get the figures that repre- 
sent the numberless exchanges of equivalents among each other 
in a community such as ours. 

If we suppose ten of the twenty-nine millions of our North 
American community to earn, on an average, $1 25 per day, 
312 days in the year, it will make an aggregate of nearly four 
thousand millions of dollars. If we divide the yearly profits of 
industry equally between capital and labor, the proportion of 
labor would be but $1 25 per day, for five millions of the twenty- 
nine millions. The average earnings of the twenty-nine 
millions, men, women, and childi'en, to produce two thousand 
millions yearly, would be 22 cents a day, for 312 working days. 
This is rather under than over the true amount ; for it would 
furnish less than $70 each for yearly support, without allowing 
anything for accumulation. 

Of the four thousand millions of yearly production, we cannot 
suppose that more than one thousand millions is consumed by 
the producers, without being made the subject of exchange. 
This will leave three thousand millions as the subjects of com- 
merce, internal and external. Of this, all must be set down for 
internal commerce, inasmuch as most of that which enters the 
channel of external commerce first passes through several hands 
betwen the producer and exporter. Foreign commerce repre- 
sents but one transaction. The export is sold, and the import is 
bought with the means the export furnishes. Not so with 
domestic commerce. Most of the products which are its sub- 
jects are bought and sold many times, between the producer and 
ultimate consumer. Let us state a case: 

I purchase a pair of boots from a boot dealer in Toledo. He 
has purchased them from a wholesale dealer in New York, who 
has bought them of the manufacturer in Newark. The manu- 
facturer has bought the chief material of a leather dealer in 
New York, who has made the purchases which fill his large 
establishment from small dealers in hides. These have received 
their supply from butchers. The butchers have bought of the 
drovers, and the drovers of the farmers. If the boots purchased 
are of French manufacture, they have been the subject of one 
transaction represented in foreign trade, to-wit : their purchase 
in Paris by the American importer ; whereas, they are the sub- 
ject of several transactions in our domestic trade. The importer 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 121 

sells them to the jobber in New York; the jobber sells them to 
the Toledo dealer, who sells them to me. 

It can scarcely admit of a doubt that the domestic commerce 
of North America bears a proportion as large as twenty to one 
of its foreign commerce. Has internal commerce a tendency to 
concentrate in few points like foreign commerce ? Is its ten- 
dency to concentration less than that of foreign commerce? No 
difference, in this respect, can be perceived. All commerce 
develops that law of its nature to the extent of its means. For- 
eign commerce concentrates chiefly at those ports where it meets 
the gi'eatest internal commerce. The domestic commerce being 
the great body draws to it the smaller body of foreign com- 
merce. New York, by her canals, her railroads, and her superior 
position for coastwise navigation, has drawn to herself most of 
our foreign commerce, because she has become the most con- 
venient point for the concentration of our domestic trade. It is 
absurd to suppose she can always, or even for half a century, 
remain the best point for the concentration of domestic trade ; 
and, as the foreign commerce will every year bear a less and less 
proportion to the domestic commerce, it can hardly be doubted 
that before the end of one century from this time the great cen- 
ter of commerce of all kinds, for North America, will be on a 
lake harbor. Supposing the center of population (now west of 
Pittsburgh) shall average a yearly movement westward, for the 
next fifty years, of twenty miles; this would carry it one thou- 
sand miles northwestward from Pittsburgh, and some five 
hundred or more miles beyond the central point of the natural 
resources of the country. It would pass Cleveland in five years, 
and Toledo in eleven years, reaching Chicago, or some point 
south of it, in less than twenty-five years. The geographical 
center of industrial power is probably now in Northeastern 
Pennsylvania, having but recently left the city of New York, 
where it partially now for a time remains. .This center will 
move at a somewhat slower rate than the center of population. 
Supposing its movement to be fifteen miles a year, it will reach 
Cleveland in twenty years, Toledo in twenty-seven years, and 
Chicago in forty-five years. If ten years be the measure of the 
annual movement northwestward of the industrial central point 
of the continent, Cleveland would be reached in thirty years, 
Toledo in forty, and Chicago in sixty-three years. It is well 
known that the rate at which the center of population in the 
"United States is now moving westward is over fifteen miles 
a year, and that it is moving with an accelerated speed. It is 
obvious that the center of population and the center of indus- 
trial power, now widely separated, by the nature of the country 
between New York and Cleveland, by the superiority in pro- 
ductive power of the old Northern and Middle States over tho 



122 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

new States of the Northwest, and still more by the inferiority 
of industrial power of the plantation States, compared with the 
region lying north of them, will have a constaut tendency to 
approximate, but can never become identical so long as the infe- 
rior African race forms a large portion of the population of the 
great Southern section of our Union. The constant tendency 
of the center of industrial power will be northward, as well as 
westward. This will be determined by the superiority of natural 
resources of the Northwest over the Southwestern section, by 
the use of a far greater proportion of machine labor, in substi- 
tution for muscular labor, in the northern region, and also by 
the superior muscular and mental power of the inhabitants of 
the colder climate. To these might be added the immense 
advantage of a vastly greater accumulated industrial power in 
every branch of industry, and the tendency of the supera- 
bundant capital of the Old World to flow into the free States 
and the country north of them. 

In the view of the subject which has been taken here, it will 
be seen that the trade with the British Provinces north of us 
has been considered a portion of our domestic trade, and that 
Mexico and California have been left out of our calculation. 
These may be allowed to balance each other. But, together or 
apart, they will not be of sufficient importance to our continental 
commerce to vary materially the results of its future for the 
next fifty years, as developed in this paper. 

At the present rate of increase, the United States and the 
Canadas fifty years from this time, will contain over one hun- 
dred and twenty millions of people. If we suppose it to be one 
hundred ami five mil ions, and that these shall be distributed so 
that the Pacific States shall have ten millions, and the Atlantic 
border twenty-five millions, there will be left for the great inte- 
rior plain seventy millions These seventy millions will have 
twenty times as much commercial intercourse with each other 
.as with the world outside. It is obvious, then, that there must 
be built up in their midst the great city of the continent; and 
not only so, but that they will sustain several cities greater than 
those which can be sustained on the ocean border. 

This is the era of great cities. London has nearly trebled in 
numbers and business since the commencement of the current 
century. The augmentation of her population in that tim * has 
been a million and a half. This increase is equal to the wholo 
population of New York and Philadelphia, and yet it is proba- 
ble that New York will be as populous as London in about fifty 
years. A liberal, but not improbable, estimate of the period of 
duplication of the numbers of these great cities would be, for 
London thirty years, and for New York fifteen years. At this 
..rate, London will have four millions and seven hundred thou- 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 123 

sand, and New York three millions four hundred thousand, at 
the end of thirty years. At the end of the third duplication of 
[New York — that is, in forty-five years — she will have become 
more populous than London, and number nearly seven millions. 
This is beyond belief, but it shows the probability of New York 
overtaking London in about fifty years. 

A similar comparison of New York and the leading interior 
city — Chicago — will show a like result in favor of Chicago. 
The census returns show the average period of duplication to be 
fifteen years for New York, and less than four years for Chicago. 
Suppose that of New York for the future should be sixteen 
years, and that of Chicago eight years, and that New York now 
has, with her suburbs, nine hundred thousand, and Chicago one 
hundred thousand people. In three duplications, New York 
would contain six millions two hundred thousand, and Chicago 
in six duplications, oceuping the same length of time, would 
have six millions four hundred thousand. It is not asserted, as 
probable, that either city will be swelled to such an extraor- 
dinary size in forty-eight years — if ever ; but it is more than 
probable that the leading interior city will be greater than New 
York fifty years from this time. 

A few words as to the estimation in which such anticipations 
are held. The general mind is faithless of what goes much 
beyond its own experience. It refuses to receive, or it receives 
with distrust, conclusions, however strongly sustained by facts 
and fair deductions, which go much beyond its ordinary range 
of thought. It is especially skeptical and intolerant toward 
the avowal of opinions, however well founded, which are san- 
guine of great future changes. It does not comprehend them, 
and therefore refuses to believe; but it sometimes goes further, 
and, without examination, scornfully rejects. To seek for the 
truth is the proper object of those who, from the past and 
present, undertake to say what will be in the future, and, when 
the truth is found, to express it with as little reference to what 
will be thought of it as if putting forth the solution of a mathe- 
matical problem. 

If we were asked whose anticipations of what has been done 
to advance civilization, for the past fifty years, have come nearest 
the truth — those of the sanguine and hopeful, or those of the 
cautious and fearful — must it not be answered that no one of 
the former class had been sanguine ahd hopeful enough to antici- 
pate the full measure of human progress since the opening of 
the present century? May it not be the most sanguine and 
hopeful only, who, in anticipation, can attain a due estimation 
of the measure of future change and improvement in the grand 
march of society and civilization westward over our continent? 

J. W. S. 



124 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

We have given Mr. Scott the benefit of a full hearing, in 
order to enable the reader the better to see the justness of the 
arguments and the truth of the positions in the discussion 
bearing upon the subject of the pamphlet and the future devel- 
opment of the internal trade of the continent. 

No home question of the American people, touching their con- 
tinental growth and commerce, is so great as this one upon the 
internal and westward growth of material power. It is the 
great source of industrial vitality and civil progress. 

In the discussion of the internal trade of the continent and 
the Western movement of the center of population and of the 
industrial power of North America, Mr. Scott has gone elabo- 
rately into the questions, yet he has lived to see some errors in 
his own arguments; and against them I caution the reader, and 
point to what I conceive to be the truth in commercial experi- 
ence and in fact. 

The great error of most men who undertake to solve the 
problems of mankind in the different phases of their career 
comes first from a failure to draw the correct lessons from 
history ; and second, on account of being too much guided by 
existing conditions, and not looking beyond to what must be 
the inevitable unfoldment and growth of their industry from the 
fixed principles of nature. This was Mr. Scott's error. His 
reasonings to prove that Toledo would be the great inland center 
of commerce, and that Chicago and Cleveland would be her 
handmaids, were founded purely upon the existing condition of 
things at the time he wrote, while beyond that condition the 
fixed principles of nature told of a different growth and a differ- 
ent distribution of the commerce of the continent. 

Mr. Scott wrote when his vision was circumscribed by the 
deadening influence of slavery over more than one-half of the 
States, and when Indian reservations blockaded the way to 
fertile lands in the West and Southwest. He saw the free 
States of the North, with their population preponderating in 
great numbers over the population of the slave States of the 
South. He saw from those populous States thousands of hardy 
sons and daughters going forth to the Northwest in search of 
homes when the way was blockaked to the Southwest, and thus 
conceived that the life-currents of the nation were destined to 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 125 

localize themselves in that region. At a later day thousands 
from all parts of the South were seen fleeing from the terrors of 
the rebellion to the Northwest ; an activity and a growth was 
seen there that has never been equaled on the continent, and 
short-sighted observers have imagined that all that unparalleled 
tendency of the people thither, and that extraordinary growth 
in population and material power, was in conformity to a fixed 
law of national growth. Not so. These incidental, yet local 
causes, positively compelled the tide of American progress and 
power to the lakes and the Northwest. Slavery and Indian 
titles alone compelled the flank movement of the central column 
Northward in the civil conquest of the continent. S,o, too, did 
the late unhappy war drive the population, the industry, and 
the wealth, to the Northwest ; but, with the extinction of slavery 
and Indian titles, the continent is left alike all over, and, founded 
upon the material resources of the country, trade and industry 
will be guided by the normal action of society and the law of 
supply and demand, and thus change all the workings of com- 
merce founded alone upon temporary conditions. For each 
slave set free is added $1,000,000 to the nation's wealth, and for 
each Indian title extinguished will be added a great community 
of industrious and intelligent people, who, "yielding to irre- 
sistible attraction, will seek a new. life in becoming a part of the 
great whole." 

But let us look beyond Mr. Scott's reasoning, and set right 
those whom he has misguided. Two theories of internal com- 
merce have been written into notice by American writers : one 
is the Lake theory, and the other is the Eiver theory. The 
Lake theory has been before the people much the longest time, 
and has been the subject of a greater number of writers than 
has the Eiver theory. The Lake theory now is that Chicago 
is to be the commercial center for the trade of the Mississippi 
Y alley, and that the produce will go there, and from thence over 
the lakes to New York and foreign markets. The Eiver theory 
is that the commerce of the Mississippi Valley will follow the 
rivers to the Gulf, and from thence to the markets of the world. 
Mr. Scott advocated the Lake theory, first making Toledo the 
commercial center, but at a later day pointed to Chicago as the 
favored place. The Eiver theory, as yet, has received but little 



126 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

attention in public print or public enterprise. Although both of 
these theories are entitled to great consideration by the Ameri- 
can people, yet it seems to be but an easy matter to determine 
which is to be the dominant one. For the Lake theory to pro- 
vail, ISTew York must control the commerce of the Valley States 
and the farther West. This is an utter impossibilit}^. She 
neither can control it by means of conveyance via the lakes nor 
by the Gulf. The development of the Yalley States and the 
farther West will break her hold upon this people in spite of her 
wealth. 

It is the commerce going to and from nations that builds 
great cities on the seaboard, and that, too, when the people 
of the interior are only a producing people. On the other 
hand, when a nation has a valuable interior, rich soils, heavy 
forests, valuable metals, and good water-powers, its people are 
sure to become a consuming people, and therefore a populous 
people, and, with the dense population, in the interior, the 
great cities grow in the interior, and the seaboard cities become 
scarcely more than shipping ports. France and England give 
the strongest evidence of this truth. London and Paris are 
their interior cities, while Liverpool and Brest are their 
shipping ports. Such will be the result in America. But 
a few more years and that difference of wealth will not 
exist between the seaboard cities and those of the West that 
now does, and, therefore, they cannot exercise that arbitrary 
commercial control over the trade of the West that they 
now do. 

The rapid approach to the time when our inland cities will 
equal, and even surpass, the Atlantic cities may be seen in the 
following figures. Taking the four cities of the seaboard and 
the four of the interior, they stand thus : 



Seaboard Cities. 1860. 

Boston 177,840 

New York 805,651 

Philadelphia 565,529 

Baltimore 212,418 



1,761,438 



Inland Cities. 1860. 

Cincinnati 161,044 

Chicago 109,260 

St. Louis 160,773 

New Orleans 168,675 



599,752 



Seaboard cities over Western cities 1,161,686 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



127 



Seaboard Cities. 1868. 

Boston 278.000 

New York 885,000 

Philadelphia 725,000 

Baltimore 230,000 



Inland Cities. 1808. 

Cincinnati 250,000 

Chicago..... 252,000 

St. Louis 265,000' 

New Orleans 200.000 



2,118,000 967,000 

Seaboard cities over Western cities 1,151,000= 

The figures show a material gain by the inland cities over* 
thoi-e of the seaboard, in spite of the ravages of the war upon 
St. Louis and New Orleans ; besides, in the West we have a 
greater area of country inviting alike all over to the emigrant; 
which causes a greater diffusion of our Western people than 
upon the seaboard part of our continent. But give us ten years 
of peaceful growth, and the West will double in population and 
wealth. In 1860 St. Louis was the seventh city of the country. 
She is now the fourth, and will soon be the third. 

In another ten years St. Louis will have more railroads run- 
ning to her than Chicago has. Startling as this statement may 
be to those who have been for a long time hearing that Chicago 
was the greatest railroad city in the country, the statement is 
nevertheless true. Any one who is acquainted with the railroad 
system of St. Louis, and can comprehend what ten years will 
bring forth, can see at once the truth of the statement. 

In addition to St. Louis becoming the great railroad center, 
she will command both the Omaha and Kansas Pacific Eailroads, 
for she is more than 100 miles nearer Omaha than Chicago. 
Besides the road via New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific 
ocean must be, on account of climate, the superior road. St. 
Louis will also have the advantage of the Galveston road and 
the Mississippi river, which will give her the advantage of the 
Southern and tropical trade. Thus everywhere are to be seen 
the unmistakable evidence of the future supremacy of St. Louis 
and her destiny to become the commercial center of the Missis- 
sippi Valley. 

On our Western seaboard we have San Francisco, with a 
population of 125,000, besides many other rapidly growing cities 
in the interior. 

The population of the West will also be more dense than 
that of the Bast; also, the workshops and wealth will be 



128 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

greater. Hence the inevitable triumph of the River theory of 
commerce over the Lake theory. The inhabitants along the 
rivers will grow the crops, work the metals and the timbers, 
while the rivers and the railroads bear away over the country 
and to the Gulf the product of their industry. With cheaper 
freights and greater advantages, resulting from greater proximity 
to the produce, the Eiver theory must prevail, and the interest 
of Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans be one in the united 
industrial and commercial movements of the West. 

He who reasons for the results of the future must take for the 
basis of his arguments the facts as they exist in nature as well 
as in man, and combine them in proper relations, and then he 
becomes a prophet among his people. Man's success everywhere 
comes from his working in harmony with nature's laws. Then, in 
conformity to these overruling conditions, the commerce of the 
Mississippi Yalley must follow the flow of the rivers, and the 
wealth of the people must come from the soils, the minerals, 
and the forests. In response to all these truths, the Eiver 
theory of the commerce of the West must be dominant over the 
Lake theory. In support of this position, the following facts 
are offered as still greater evidence of its truth : 

The States lying upon the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi 
rivers, fourteen in number, had, by the census of 1860, a popu- 
lation of 16,909,494, or more than half the whole population of 
the United States; and these two rivers have a coast line of 
36,098 miles, while the coast of the Atlantic is 2,163 miles, and 
the Gulf of Mexico 1,764 miles, and of the Pacific 1.343 miles, 
on an outer line, or 21,354 miles including bays and indentations. 

That these rivers drain an area of 1,785,267 square miles, 
more than \ half of the whole 3,001,002 square miles in the 
United States; and those fourteen States, in. I860, contained 
94,402,869 of the 163,110,720 improved acres, and 126,703,393 of 
the 244,101,818 unimproved acres of the whole United States; 
and the valution of property in these fourteen States shows 
$8,467,511,274 of the whole valuation of the United States, 
$16,077,358,715; showing very conclusively that these fourteen 
States pay more than half the taxes, work more than half of the 
improved land, have the majority of the population, and also 
the majority of the land to develop, of the whole United States. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE, 129 

By the census of 1860, the whole product of the United States 
was valued at -$1,900,000,000, while the foreign exports of 
domestic produce were only $373,189,274, or less than one-fifth 
of the whole product, leaving four-fifths for exchange in domestic 
commerce between the States. 

The proportion of the whole product afforded by these four- 
teen States we speak for, may be judged by these returns of 
their produce, gathered from the census of 1860, and compared 
with the whole United States, as follows : 



173,104,924 

172,643,185 

ids. 434,209 461 pounds. 

230,982,000 

2,154,820,800 

60,264,913 



The Fourteen States. The -whole United States. 

Corn 632.453,375 bushels. 838,792 740 bushels. 

Wheat 126,930,730 

Oats 103,995 461 

Tobacco 345,400.759 pom 

Suo-ar 222,636,000 

Cotton 1,079,799,600 

"Wool 31,277,839 

Hay.. 9,297,743 tons. 19,083,896 tons. 

Butter 239,601,405 pounds. 459,681,372 pounds. 

Hemp 69,470 tons. 74,493 tons. 

Hogs 22,225,766 31,512,867 

Bituminous coal 3,247,264,425 bushels. 3,621,923,165 bushels 

Horses and asses .... 4,804,634 7,400,322 

Cattle 12,517,392 25,616,019 

Sheep 11,973,315 22,471,275 

Showing for the river States a great preponderance in the 
products of the whole country. 

The total tonnage owned in the United States is returned in 
the census of 1860 as 5,353,868 tons, and the portion belonging 
to the fourteen States as 996,266 tons ; but it is estimated, by 
competent parties, that the steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi 
have carried 7,905,216 tons during the year 1866, evincing 
the activity in domestic commerce of these river States, and 
this commerce but yet in its infancy — for it is developing 
daily, and demonstrating that from these States has and must 
come the food supply for the whole nation and for export; 
and that they must also supply the gold and silver States which 
are developing so largely and quickly upon the tributaries of 
their rivers. 

These figures cannot be regarded otherwise than in favor of 
the River theory, and the consequent development of St. Louis 
as the commercial center of the Mississippi Y alley. 



130 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



In further proof of St. Louis becoming the commercial center 
of the Mississippi Valle}', the following evidence given by Pro- 
fessor Waterhouse, of this city, in one of his valuable articles 
upon the resources of Missouri, is submitted : 

ST. LOUIS THE COMMEBCTAL CENTKE OF NORTH 

AMEEIOA. 

St. Louis is ordained by the decrees of physical nature to 
become the great inland metropolis of this continent. It cannot 
escape the magnificence of its destiny. Greatness is the neces- 
sity of its position. .New York may be the head but St. Louis 
will be the heart of America. The stream of traffic which must 
flow through this mart will enrich it with alluvial deposits of 
gold. Its central location and facilities of communication 
unmistakably indicate the leading part which this city will take 
in the exchange and distribution of the products of the Missis- 
sippi Valley. St. Louis is situated upon the west bank of the 
Mississippi, at an altitude of 400 feet above the level of the sea. 
It is far above the highest floods that ever swell the Father of 
"Waters. Its latitude is 38 deg. 37 min. 28 sec. north, and its 
longitude 90 deg. 15 min. 16 sec. west. It is 20 miles below the 
mouth of the Missouri, and 200 above the confluence of the Ohio. 



Distance by ri 



Distance by rail from St. L 



Miles. 

er from St. Louis to Keokuk 200 

Burlington 260 

Rock Island 350 

Dubuque 470 

St. Paul 800 

Cairo , 200 

Memphis 440 

Vieksburg I 830 

New Orleans 1.240 

Louisvill 580 

Cincinnati 720 

Pittsburg 1,200 

Leavenworth 500 

Omaha 800 

Sioux City 100 

Fort Benton 3,100 

ouis to Indianapolis 200 

Chicago 280 

Cincinnati 310 

Cleveland 470 

Pittsburg 650 

Buffalo 650 

New York 1,000 

Lawrence 320 

Denver 880 

Salt Lake 1,300 

Virginia City 1.900 

San Francisco 2,300 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



131 



St. Louis very nearly bisects the direct distance of 1,400 miles 
between Superior City and the Balize. It is the geographical 
center of a valley which embraces 1,200,000 square miles. In 
its course of 3,200 miles, the Mississippi borders upon Missouri 
470 miles. Of the 3,000 miles of the Missouri, 500 lie within 
the limits of our own State. St. Louis is mistress of more than 
16,500 miles of river navigation. 

This metropolis, though in the infancy of its greatness, is 
al ready a large city. Its length is about eight miles, and its 
width three. Suburban residences, the outposts of the grand 
advance, are now stationed sis or seven miles from the river. 
The present population of St. Louis is 204,300. In 1865, the real 
and personal property of the city was assessed at $100,000,000,, 
and in 1866 at $126,877,000. 

St. Louis is a well-built city, but its architecture is rather 
substantial than showy. The wide, well-paved streets, the spa- 
cious levee, and commodious warehouses; the mills, machine- 
shops, and manufactories; the fine hotels, churches, and public 
buildings; the universities, charitable institutions, public schools, 
and libraries, constitute an array of excellences and attractions 
of which any city may justly be proud. The Lindell and 
Southern Hotels are two of the largest and most magnificent 
structures which the world bas ever dedicated to public hospi- 
tality. The Lindell is itself a village.* 

The appearance of St. Louis from the eastern bank of the 
Mississippi is impressive. At East St. Louis, the eye sometimes 
commands a view of 100 steamboats lying at our levee. Not- 
withstanding the departure of more than 40 boats for Montana, 
there are at this date 70 steamers in the port of St. Louis. A 
mile and a hvM of steamboats is a spectacle which naturally 
inspires large views of commercial greatness. The sight of our 
levee, thronged ,with busy merchants and covered with the 
commodities of every clime, from the peltries of the Eocky 
Mountains to the teas of China, does not tend to lessen the mag- 
nitude of the impi"ession. 

The growth of St. Louis, though greatly retarded by social 
institutions, has been rapid. The population of the city was, io 



1769 891 

1795 925 

1810 1,400 

1820 4,928 

1828. 5.000 

1830 5.852 

1833 6,397 

1835 8,316 



1837 12,040 

1840 16,469 

1844 34,140 

1850 74,439 

1852 94,000 

1856 125,200 

1859 185.587 

1866 204,327 



*Ou the 30tb. of March, 1867, this superb edifice was burned to the ground. 



132 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



In 1866, 1,400 buildings, worth $3,500,000, were erected in St. 
Louis. The total number of structures in the city is now about 
20,000, and their approximate value is $50,000,000.* 

At the present rate of decennial increase,; St. Louis, in 1900, 
would contain more than 1,000,000 inhabitant^ ' This number 
certainly seems to exceed the present probability of realization, 
but the future growth of St. Louis, vitalized by the mightiest 
forces of a free civilization, and quickened ..by the exchanges of 
a continental commerce, ought to surpass the rapidity of its 
past development. 

The real estate in St. Louis was, in 

1859 assessed at $69,846,845 

1860 " "... 73,765,670 

1861 " " 57.537,415 

1862 " " 40,240,450 



1863 assessed at 

1864 " " 


$49,409,030 

.... 53,205,820 


1865 " ".. 


.... 73,900,700 


1868 


.... 81,961,610 



In 1866, the valuation of the real and personal property in St. 
Louis on which the State and military taxes were levied was 
$126,877,000. 

The amount of duties collected at the St. Louis Custom House 
was, in 

1861 $30,183 96 

1862.... 20,404 70 

1863 36,622 09 



1864 $76,448 43 

1865 586,407 47 

1866 785,652 30 



The amount of imposts paid at the port of Chicago during the 
fiscal year ending December 31, 1866, was $509,643 39 in coin. 

The duties collected during the same period at this port 
amounted to $60,176 45 in currency, and $780,706 97 in gold. 

Only about one-fifth of the customs levied on goods imported 
into St. Louis are collected at this point. St. Louis is only a 
port of delivery.' The imposts upon our foreign merchandise 
are chiefly paid at the ports of entry. 

The present system of foreign importation is unfavorable to 
the commercial interests of St. Louis. This city should be made 
& port of entry. The goods of St. Louis importers are now 
subjected to great delay and expense at New Orleans. The 
municipal authorities do not permit the merchandise to lie on 
the landing more than five days. If the requisite papers are not 
made out within that time, the goods are sent to bonded ware- 
houses. This contingency not unfrequently occurs. The press 
of business or official slowness often delays the issue of the 
Custom House pass beyond the specified time, and then the 



* A report recently made under municipal authority, shows that at the date of 
the presfnt publication, November, 1S68, more than 2,000 buildings — almost all of 
them built of brick, and many of them faced with stone— are either now in process of 
erection or just finished. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 13S 

Western importer is subject to the serious expense which the- 
dray age to the warehouse, loss of time, and frequent damage to 
the goods, involve. The gravity of this embarrassment forces- 
many of our merchants to pay the duties at New Orleans. 
This course saves delay and expense. The revenue laws recog- 
nize no distinction between the actual payment of duties arid 
the transportation bond. But practically there is an important 
difference. In case the impost is paid at New Orleans, the- 
goods are almost always forwarded within five days ; but when 
the merchandise is shipped under a transportation bond, the- 
detention is very frequently ten days, and sometimes a month. 
In the former instance, any package can be forwarded as soon 
as the duty is paid; but, in the latter case, the imports cannot 
be dispatched to their destination till the entire shipment has 
passed the inspection of the Custom House. In consequence of 
these unjust discriminations against St. Louis, many of our 
largest importers, notwithstanding the inconvenience of keeping 
gold on deposit in New Orleans, prefer to pay the duties on, 
their foreign goods at the port of entry. 

An excessive and unnecessary delay at the New Orleans- 
Custom House recently subjected one of our merchants to a loss, 
of $8 a ton on a shipment of iron. 

Last season, another of our importers ordered a large stock 
of Christmas goods. The articles reached New Orleans in sea- 
son, but were detained there till after the holidays. They must- 
now be kept, with loss and deterioration, for another year ; and y „ 
before next Christmas, they may become comparatively worth- 
less by changes of mode and new directions of public taste. 

These examples illustrate the importance of time in commer- 
cial transactions. 

The Government could easily obviate all the difficulties which 
our importers now experience by making St. Louis a port of 
entry. The commercial embarrassments of the present system 
need immediate removal. In the event of the proposed change, 
frauds upon the Government could be prevented by reshipping 
the goods at New Orleans under the eye of the Custom House 
authorities, keeping them during the voyage under lock and 
key, and, if necessary, subjecting them on the passage to the 
surveillance of a Eevenue officer. During the rebellion, the- 
shipments of merchandise to Southeim ports were placed under 
similar supervision. The satisfactory operation of this system, 
amid all the liabilities to abuse which exist in times of civil tur- 
bulence, warrants the conviction that the proposed plan would^ 
in a period of peace, prove eminently successful. 

If Congress respects commercial rights, St. Louis will soon 
become a port of entry. 



134 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

From the records of the United States Assessor, it appears 
that in 1865 the sales of 612 St. Louis firms amounted to 
$140,688,856. For the same year, the imports of this city 
reached an aggregate of §285,873,875 

The manufactures of St. Louis constitute an important element 
in our commercial transactions. In 1860, the capital invested 
in manufactures was $9,205,205, and the value of the product 
was $21,772,323. In 1866, the mills of this city made 820,000 
barrels of flour. 

In 1865, our receipts of grain, including flour, were. ..17, 637, 250 bushels. 
" 1866, " " " ...20,855,280 

" 1865, exports . " " ...18,427.000 

" 1866, " " " ...18,680,500 

St. Louis, though the eighth city in the United States in popu* 
lation, ranks as seventh in the importance of its manufactures- 
Missouri might profitably imitate the activity of its metropolis. 

The extent of our social and commercial intercourse with the 
rest of the world may be inferred from the postal statistics of 
this department. In 1865, the number of letters which passed 
through the St. Louis Post Office for distribution, mail or 
delivery, was about 11,000,000. In 1866, the total sum of postage 
collected, including the sale of stamps, was more than $195,000 ; 
and the amount of money orders paid was $145,000. In postal 
importance, St Louis is the fifth city of the Union. 

The earnings of our railroads indirectly exhibit the magnitude 
of our trade. For the fiscal year of 1865 the total receipts of 
the Iron Mountain were $424,700; North Missouri, $1,018,000 ; 
Missouri Pacific and Southwest Branch, $1,939,000; Hannibal 
and St. Joseph, $2,000,000. In 1866, the earnings of the Mis- 
souri Pacific were $2,670,000. The returns of the Union Pacific 
for November, 1866, were $77,869. The Directors estimate their 
monthly receipts for 1867 at $100,000. 

In 1865, the total number of passengers, by river or rail, who 
made St. Louis their destination or a point of transit, amounted 
to 1,180,000; and in 1866, 1,250,000. 

In 1866, the number of houses and firms doing business in St. 
Louis was 5,500, and the number of commercial licenses issued 
during the same year was 4,800. 

The tonnage owned and enrolled in the district of St. Louis in 
1865 was 97,000 tons. On the first of January, 1867, the amount 
of our steam tonnage, exclusive of a large number of barges and 
canal boats which made occasional trips, was 106,600 tons, with 
a carrying capacity of 186, 00 tons, and a value of $10,376,000. 

Our commerce is aided by ample banking facilities. There 
-are in St. Louis, in addition to 20 private banks, 38 insurance 



CHANGE Or NATIONAL EMPIRE. 135 

'Companies, 31 incorporated banking institutions, with an actual 
capital of $15,000,000. The character of our banks stands 
deservedly high in the financial world. The development of the 
territories is bringing large deposits to our banks, creating new 
demands for capital, and extending the channels of circulation. 

Our trade with the mountains is large and rapidly increasing. 
In 1885, 20 boats set out from this port for Fort Benton — which 
is more than 3,000 miles from St. Louis — with a total freight of 
6,000,000 pounds. 

In 1866, 50 boats sailed for Fort Benton, with an aggregate 
tonnage of 10,284 tons. In three instances the cost of assorted 
goods was as follows : 

13 tons of merchandise $12,000 

35 " " 40.0CO 

40 " " 65,000 

Mean cost per ton 1,300 

The agent who furnishes these facts feels authorized by his 
•experience in the trade of the Upper Missouri to appraise a ton 
of Montana merchandise at $1,000. 

The following table is an approximate estimate, based upon the 
preceding data, of our commerce with Montana for the year 
1866 : 

"Number of boats 50 

" " passengers 2,500 

Pounds of freight 13,000.000 

Value of merchandise $6,500,000 

The trade across the Plains is of still greater magnitude. 
'The overland freight from Atchison alone has increased from 
3,000,000 pounds in 1861 to 21,500,000 in 1865. 

The Overland Dispatch Company have courteously furnished 
-me with estimates, founded upon their own transactions, of our 
total commerce -with the Territories in 1865. These figures do 
not include the Fort Benton trade. 

.Number of passengers East and West by overland coaches 4,800 

" '• " "by trains and private 
conveyances 50,000 

-Number of wagons 8,000 

tk " cattle and mules 100,000 

Pounds of freight to Plattsmouth 3.000.000 

k ' " Leavenworth City 6,000,000 

" " Santa Fe 8,000,600 

" " St Joseph 10,000 000 

" " Nebraska City 15,000,000 

" " Atchison 25,000.000 

■Government freight 50.000,000 

Total number of pounds 117,000,000 

..Amount of treasure carried by express $3,000,000 

" " " by private conveyance 30,000,000 



136 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

The Overland Express charge 3 per cent, for the transporta- 
tion of bullion. This high commission and the hostility of the 
Indian tribes induced many miners to send their gold East by 
the way of San Francisco to Panama. 

In 1866, the total assay of bullion in the United States was 
$81,389,540. Of this aggregate, $73,032,800 came from the 
Pacific and Kocky Mountain mines. Upon the usual estimate 
that 25 per cent, of the gold and silver escapes assay, the entire 
product of the country in 1866 was $100,000,000. The increase 
of population in the gold regions, the richness of recent discov- 
eries, and greater activity in mining operations indicate a still 
larger aggregate in 1867. 

In 1866, the Westward traffic of Leavenworth amounted to 
$50,000,000. This aggregate includes the Santa Fe trade, whose 
value last year was about $35,000,000. The Western trade of 
Nebraska City was, in 

1863 16,800,000 pounds. 

1864 23,000,000 ' ' 

1865 44,000,000 " 

1866 30,000,000 " 

The freightage from this point across the Plains required, in 
1865, 11,739 men, 10,311 wagons, 10,123 mules, and 76,596 oxen. 

So great is the length of the overland routes that the trains 
are able to make but two through trips a year. 

The Union Pacific railroad already extends to Fort Harker. 
This materially shortens the extent of overland freightage.* 

Distance from St. Louis to Fort Harker 50S miles. 

" " Fort Harker to Denver 372 " 

" " " " SaltLakeCity 8S0 " 

" " " " Virginia City 1432 " 

The length of these lines of transportation, the slowness of 
our present means of communication, and the magnitude of our 
territorial population and trade, forcibly illustrate the necessity 
of a Pacific railroad. 

The foregoing summaries exhibit the commerce of the Missis- 
sippi Valley with the mountains. But while St. Louis does not 
monopolize the trade of the gold regions, it yet sends to the 

*The Union Pacific, Eastern Division, now extends to Sheridan, 68S miles west of 
St. Louis. The distance from Sheridan to Denver is 175 miles, and from Denver to 
Cheyenne— where the Union Pacific forms a junction with the Northern line— 112 miles. 

The Northern Pacific is now completed 850 miles west of Omaha. The Central 
Pacific now runs eastward from San Francisco more than 600 miles The 400 miles 
which remain to be built will probably be finished by the fourth of July, 18t>9 — more 
than six years before the time prescribed by law for the completion of the road. Then 
an unbroken line of railway of 3,300 miles long will stretch from New York to San 
Francisco. This gigantic work, prosecuted during the most formidable rebellion of 
modern times, and finished amid the derangements of national finance incident to 
civil convulsions, must ever be regarded as an extraordinary triumph of American 
energy. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 137 

territories by far the largest portion of their supplies. Even in 
cases where merchandise has been procured at intermediate 
points, it is probable that the goods were originally purchased 
at St. Louis. 

During the rebellion, the commercial transactions of Cincin- 
nati and Chicago doubtless exceeded those of St. Louis. The 
very events which prostrated our trade stimulated theirs into an 
unnatural activity. Their sales were enlarged by the traffic 
which was wont to seek this market. Our loss was their gain. 

The Southern trade of St. Louis was utterly destroyed by the 
blockade of the Mississippi. The disruption by civil commotions 
of our commercial intercourse with the interior of Missouri was 
nearly complete. The trade of the Northern States, bordering 
upon the Mississippi, was still unobstructed. But the merchants 
of St. Louis could not afford to buy commodities which they 
were unable to sell, and country dealers would not purchase 
their goods where they could not dispose of their produce. 
Thus St. Louis, with every market wholly closed or greatly 
restricted, was smitten with a commercial paralysis. The 
prostration of business was general and disastrous. No com- 
parison of claims can be just which ignores the circumstances 
that, during the rebellion, retarded the commercial growth of 
St. Louis, yet fostered that of rival cities. 

Nothing more clearly demonstrates the geographical superi- 
ority of St. Louis than the action of the Government during the 
war. Notwithstanding the strenuous competition of other 
cities, our facilities for distribution and a due regard for its own 
interests compelled the Government to make St. Louis the 
"Western base of supplies and transportation. During the 
rebellion, the transactions of the Government at this point were 
very large. General Parsons, Chief of Transportation in the 
Mississippi Yalley, submits the following as an approximate 
summary of the operations in his department from 1860 to 1865 : 

AMOUNT OF TRANSPORTATION. 

Cannons and caissons 800 

Wagons 13,000 

Cattle 80,000 

Horses and mules 250,000 

Troops 1,000,000 

Pounds of military stores 1,950,000,000 

General Parsons thinks that full one-half of the transporta- 
tion employed by the Government on the Mississippi and its 
tributaries was furnished by St. Louis. 

From September 1, 1861, to December 81, 1865, General 
Haines, Chief Commissary of this department, expended at St.. 
Louis, for the purchase of subsistence stores, $50,700,000. 
9 



138 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIKE. 

During the war, General Myers, Chief Quartermaster of this 
department, disbursed at this city, for supplies, transportation, 
and incidental expenses, $180,000,000. 

The national exigencies forced the Government to select the 
best point of distribution. The choice of the Federal authorities 
is a conclusive proof of the commercial superiority of St. Louis. 

The conquest of treason has restored to this mart the use of 
its natural facilities. Trade is rapidly regaining its old chan- 
nels. On it* errand of exchange it penetrates every State and 
Territory in the Mississippi Yalley, from Alabama and New 
Mexico to Minnesota and Montana. It navigates every stream 
that pours its tributary waters into the Mississippi. It, visits the 
islands of the sea, traverses the ocean, and explores foreign lands. 

Before the war, almost all the Western trade in coffee and 
sugar was carried on by way of New Orleans. The interruption 
of traffic, by the blockade of the Mississippi river, changed the 
channels of commerce. By the necessities of the country, trade 
was forced into unnatural courses. New York, by its limitless 
capital and enterprise, has obtained a brief control over a trade 
that rightfully belongs to the West. As soon as the country 
regains its normal condition and commerce resumes its natural 
flow, the West will inevitably assert its former and legitimate 
ascendancy in this branch of business. Most of the coffee used 
in the West is brought from Bio Janeiro. Water carriage is 
always the cheapest means of transportation. The rail from 
New York cannot compete with the river from New Orleans. 
Besides, the Gulf route is the shortest distance between St. 
Louis and Bio Janeiro. The cost, then, of importing Bio coffee 
to this point is much less by New Orleans than by New York. 
An urgent necessity exists for the establishment of lines of 
steamers between New Orleans and South American ports. 

A direct trade with the West Indies and South America 
would, from our superior facilities of transportation, not only 
place the control of the grocery business of the Northwest in 
our hands, but also greatly enlarge our exportations. The West 
consumes far more coffee proportionately than the East. South 
America uses large quantities of Western flour. There would 
then be a steady and growing interchange of commodities 
between these countries. 

Missouri flour is the best in the American market. This is 
an important advantage in favor of St. Louis. It is a well- 
ascertained fact that flour made from grain grown in this lati- 
tude bears the voyage to South American ports better than any 
other. The experience of exporters verifies this assertion. 
Our flour is, then, not only the finest in the United States for 
home consumption, but also the best for exportation to tropical 
^countries. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 139 

St. Louis ought to cultivate more intimate commercial rela- 
tions with Brazil. Prior to our acquisition of Eussian America, 
the area of this country was 500,000 square miles larger than 
that of the United States. Its present population is nearly 
10,000,000. Of its principal cities, 

Para contains 30,000 inhabitants. 

Pernambuco 8\000 " 

Bahia 133,000 

Kio Janeiro 400,000 " 

The exports of Brazil are coffee, hides, sugar, caoutchouc, rose- 
wood, mahogany, Brazil wood, cinchona, logwood, cotton, rice, 
sarsaparilla, sassafras, ipecacuanha, cacao, vanilla, cloves, cinna- 
mon, and tamarinds. 

In 1856, the value of the commodities imported from Brazil 
into the United States was — 

Brazil wood $32,000 

" nuts 43.000 

Rosewood 81,460 

Hair 138,240 

Sugar 513,450 

India rubber, 771,320 

Raw bides 1,930.220 

Coffee 16,091,700 

In 1857, this country imported from Brazil 197,000,000 pounds 
of coffee, worth $17,980,000. In the same year Brazil exported 
to foreign markets 256,000,000 pounds of sugar. 

In exchange for these valuable commodities, Brazil needs lard, 
pork, hams, flour, pine lumber, agricultural implements, textile 
fabrics, and other manufactures. These articles are the chief 
staples of Western growth and production. The Mississippi 
Valley is able to supply most of the commercial wants of Brazil. 
St. Louis, as the main distributing point of the West, ought to 
take the lead in this grand system of mercantile exchanges. A 
vast commerce must soon spring up between the metropolis of 
this valley and the ports of South America. But at present our 
exports to Brazil are entirely disproportioned to our ability to 
meet the commercial wants of that country. In 1851-55, the 
trade of England with South America was five times as large as 
that of the United States. 

In 1830, the value of our American imoorts from Brazil was... $20, 000, 000 

" exports " " ... 6,000,000 

These figures show that this country is not a successful com- 
petitor for the rich trade of South America. More energetic 
rivals are enriching themselves with the opulence of this com- 
merce. 



140 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

The wants of the United States and Brazil are complement- 
ary. Each country needs the productions of the other. The 
West is the fruitful and main source of those commodities which 
South America requires. St. Louis, as the chief emporium of 
the Mississippi Yailey, is able, by the vast expansion which it 
can cause in this tropic trade, to turn the commercial balance in 
favor of the United States, and itself become the central dis- 
tributing point of Brazilian staples. 

But St. Louis can never realize its splendid possibilities with- 
out effort. The trade of the vast domain lying east of the 
Bocky Mountains and south of the Missouri river is naturally 
tributary to this mart. St. Louis, by the exercise of forecast 
and vigor, can easily control the commerce of 1,000,000 square ' 
miles. But there is urgent need of exertion. Chicago is an 
energetic rival. Its lines of railroad pierce every portion of the 
^Northwest. It draws an immense commerce by its network of 
railways. The meshes which so closely interlace all the adja- 
cent country gather rich treasures from the tides of commerce. 
Chicago is vigorously extending its lines of road across Iowa 
to the Missouri river. The completion of these roads will inevi- 
tably divert a portion of the Montana trade from this city to 
Chicago. The energy of an unlineal competitor may usurp the 
legitimate honors of the imperial heir. 

St. Louis cannot afford to continue the masterly inactivity of 
the old regime. A traditional and passive trust in the efficacy of 
natural advantages will no longer be a safe policy. St. Louis 
must make exertions equal to its strength and worthy of its 
opportunities. It must not only form great plans of commercial 
empire, but must execute them with an energy defiant of failure. 
It must complete its projected railroads to the mountains, and 
span the Mississippi at St. Louis with a bridge whose solidity 
of niasonry shall equal the massiveness of Boman architecture, 
and whose grandeur shall be commensurate with the future 
greatness of the Mississippi Valley. The structure whose arches 
will bear the transit of a continental commerce should vie with 
the great works of all time, and be a monument to distant ages 
of the triumph of civil engineering and the material glory of 
the Great Bepublic. 

Since these sentences were written, a company, composed of 
men of large means and sterling integrity, has been incorpo- 
rated for the purpose of erecting a bridge across the Mississippi 
at this point. The executive and financial ability of its mem- 
bers is a guarantee of efficient action and an early accomplish- 
ment of this great work. The length of the bridge, together 
with its approaches, will be about 3,500 feet, and the probable 
cost §5,000,000. The material of the structure will be steel. 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EM1TRE. 141 

Chas. K. Dickson is president of the company, and James B. 
Eads, the distinguished inventor, is chief engineer. 

The initial steps for the erection of a bridge across the Mis- 
souri at St. Charles have already been taken. The work should 
be pushed forward with untiring energy to its consummation. 

The iron, stone, and timber necessary for these structures can 
be obtained within a few miles of St. Louis, and the greater part 
of the material can be transported by water. The construction 
of public works whose cost would be millions of dollars would 
afford employment to thousands of laborers, and give fresh 
impulse to the prosperity of St. Louis. 

A full and persistent presentation of the superior claims of 
Carondelet ought to induce the Government to establish a naval 
station at that point. The supply of labor and materiel which a 
navy yard would require would be another source of wealth to 
Missouri and its metropolis. 

The effect of impi^ovements upon the business of the city may 
be illustrated by the operations of our city elevator. The eleva- 
tor cost §450,000, and has a capacity of 1,250,000 bushels. It is 
able to handle 100,000 bushels a day. It began to receive grain 
in October, 1865. Before the first of January, 18b6, its receipts 
amounted to 600,000 bushels, 200,000 of which were brought 
directly from Chicago. The total receipts at the elevator in 1866 
were 1,376,700 bushels. Grain can now be shipped, by way of 
St. Louis and New Orleans, to New York and Europe twenty 
cents a bushel cheaper than it can be carried to the Atlantic 
by rail. 

The facilities which our elevator affords for the movement of 
cereals have given rise to a new system of transportation. The 
Mississippi Valley Transportation Company has been organized ( 
for the conveyance of grain to New Orleans in barges. Steam 
tugs of immense strength have been built for the use of the 
company. They carry no freight. They are simply the motive 
power. They save delay by taking fuel for the round trip. 
Landing only at the large cities, they stop barely long enough 
to attach a loaded barge. By this economy of time and steady 
movement, they equal the speed of steamboats. The Mohawk 
made its first trip from St. Louis to New Orleans in six days, 
with ten barges in tow. The management of the barges is pre- 
cisely like that of freight cars. The barges are loaded in the 
absence of the tug. The tug arrives, leaves a train of barges, 
takes another, and proceeds. The tug itself is always at work. 
It does not lie idle at the levee while the barges are loading. 
Its longest stoppage is made for fuel. The power of these boats 
is enormous. The tugs plying on the Minnesota river some- 
times tow 30,000 bushels of wheat apiece. The freight of a 
single trip would fill 85 railroad cars. 



142 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

Steamboats are obliged to remain in port two or three days 
for the shipmeDt of freight. The heavy expense which this 
delay and the necessity for large crews involve is a grave objec- 
tion to the old system of transportation. The service of the 
steam tug requires but few men, and the cost of running is 
relatively light. The advantages which are claimed for the 
barge system are exhibited by the following table : 

Tugs and barges. Steamboats. 

Stoppage at intermediate points 2 hours 6 hours 

' k "terminal " 24 " 48 " 

Crew 15 50 

Tonnage 25,000 tons 1,500 tons 

Daily expense S200 SI, 000 

Original cost $75,000 $100,000 

In addition to the ordinary precautions against fire, the barges 
have this unmistakable advantage over steamboats : they can be 
cut adrift from each other, and the fire restricted to the nar- 
rowest limits. The greater safety of barges ought to secure for 
them lower rates of insurance. The barges are very strongly 
built, and have water-tight compartments for the movement of 
grain in bulk. The transportation of grain from Minnesota to 
New Orleans by water costs no more than the freightage from 
the same point to Chicago. After the erection of a floating 
elevator at New Orleans, a boat load of grain from St. Paul will 
not be handled again till it reaches the Crescent City. 

At that port it will be transferred by steam to the vessel which 
will convey it to New York or Europe. The possible magnitude 
of this trade may be inferred from the fact that in 1865 Minne- 
sota alone raised" 10,000,000 bushels of wheat. Three quarters 
of this harvest could have been exported if facilities of cheap 
transportation had offered adequate inducement. In 1866, higher 
prices — which produced the same practical result as cheaper 
freightage — led to the exportation of 8,000,000 bushels. Some 
of this grain belonged to the crop of the preceding year. But 
this fact does not at all affect the question of carriage. 

From the 1st of May to the 25th of December, 1866, the tow- 
boats of this city transported 120,000 tons of freight. This new 
scheme of conveying freight by barges bids fair to revolutionize 
the whole carrying trade of our Western waters. It will mate- 
rially lessen the expense of heavy transit, and augment the 
commerce of the Mississippi river in proportion to the reduction 
it effects in the cost of transportation. The improvement which 
facilitates the carriage of our cereals to market, and makes it 
more profitable for the farmer to sell his grain than to burn it, 
is a national benefit. This enterprise, which may yet change 
the channel of cereal transportation, shows what great results 
a spirit of progressive energy may accomplish. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 143" 

The mercantile interests of the West imperatively demand the^ 
improvement of the Mississippi and its main tributaries. This 
is a work of such prime and transcendent importance to the 
commerce of the country that it challenges the co-operation of 
the Government. A commercial marine which annually trans- 
fers tens of millions of passengers, and cargoes whose value is 
hundreds of millions, ought not to encounter obstructions which 
human effort can remove. The yearly loss of property from 
the interruption of communication and wreck of boats reaches 
a startling aggregate. 

For the accomplishment of an undertaking so vital to its 
municipal interests, St. Louis should exert its mightiest energies. 
The prize for which competition strives is too splendid to be 
lost by default. The Queen City of the West should not volun- 
tarily abdicate its commercial sovereignty. 

If the emigrant merchants of America and Europe, who recog- 
nize in the geographical position of St. Louis the guarantee of 
mercantile supremacy, will become citizens of this metropolis, 
they will aid in bringing to a speedier fulfillment the prophecies 
of its greatness. The current of Western trade must flow 
through the heart of this valley. 

In the march of progress St. Louis will keep equal step with 
the West. Located at the intersection of the river which trav- 
erses zones, and the railway which belts the continent, with 
divergent roads from this centre to the circumference of the 
country, St. Louis enjoys commercial advantages which must 
inevitably make it the greatest inland emporium of America. 
The movement of our vast harvests and the distribution of the 
domestic and foreign merchandise required by the myriad 
thousands who will, in the near future, throng this valley, will 
develop St. Louis to a size proportioned to the vastness of the 
commerce it will transact. This metropolis will not only be the 
centre of Western exchanges, but also, if ever the seat^ of 
government is transferred from its present locality, the capital 
of the nation. 

St. Louis, strong with energies of youthful freedom, and active 
in the larger and more genial labors of peace, will greet the 
merchants of other States and lands with a friendly welcome, 
afford them the opportunities of fortune, and honor their ser- 
vices in the achievement of its greatness. 

All must agree upon the fact of the wonderful growth of the 
internal commerce of the country, but difference of opinion 
may exist as to how that commerce will be distributed so as to 
build up wealthy and powerful cities and peoples. This is 
easily determined. In the very nature of things, the tropical 



144 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

climates combine with the temperate to produce wealth and 
sustenance for man, but never to any success do the temperate 
climates combine with the frozen climates to produce wealth 
and commerce. Besides those combinations, the rivers in all 
lands that have been serviceable to man essentially flow to the 
tropics. These facts all combine in favor of St. Louis; and sur- 
rounded every way by navigable rivers, approached by rail- 
ways, and in the very midst of the finest coal and iron fields in 
the world, a destiny of unspeakable greatness is thrust upon her, 
and also upon the West. The Illinois coal fields are estimated 
by Prof. H. F. Eodgers to contain 1,227,500,000,000 tons, while 
the Pennsylvania coal fields contain 316,400,000,000 tons. The 
Missouri coal fields are estimated by Prof. G. W. Swallow at 
109,500,000,000 tons, and yet, owing to the incomplete geologi- 
cal survey of the State, it is thought by competent men that 
there is still more coal in Missouri. All the coal fields of North 
America are estimated at 4,000,000,000,000 tons j the coal fields 
of Great Britain at 190,000,000,000 tons. The Illinois coal 
fields contain four times as much coal as those of Pennsylvania, 
nearly one-third a3 much as all those of North America, and 
over six times as much as all the coal fields of Great Britain. 
It is reckoned by Prof. Forrest Shepherd that the best coal fields 
of Illinois are situated along the Mississippi river, near the 
southwestern boundary, and adjacent to the Missouri iron fields; 
that Illinois coal will have to be used in the manufacture of 
Missouri iron ; and that the day is not distant when one vast 
series of' iron foundries and workshops will line the Illinois 
and Missouri shores of the great river ; and thus from Illinois 
and Missouri will grow, within one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty miles south of St. Louis, greater shops than the minerals of 
England have produced. Nothing is more certain than this ; for 
all that nature can do for man she has done in America, and 
localized it in the Mississippi Valley. Within 100 miles of St. 
Louis, gold, iron, lead, zinc, copper, tin, silver, platina, nickel, 
emery, cobalt, coal, lime stone, granite, pipe clay, fire clay, mar- 
ble, metallic paints, and salt, are found, all of which will repay 
for working, and most of which are in great abundance. Iron 
everywhere in civilized life is more valuable than gold. In con- 
nection with the consideration of the development of the 



CHANGE OE NATIONAL EMPIRE. 145 

internal trade of the continent, it is plain to be seen that the 
interior cities, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans, 
are destined to approach, if not rival, Boston, New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Baltimore, in wealth, commerce, population, and 
material power. 

Turn which way we will, at home or abroad, and everything 
points to the future development and population of the Yalley 
States to immeasurable greatness — the home of more millions 
of intelligent, industrious, and sovereign people than now live 
upon the globe. 

The agricultural growth of the Northwestern YalJey States 
may be inferred from the following tables deduced from the 
United States census of 1860 : 

In 1860 the whole number of acres of improved land in all 
the States and Territories was 163,261,8-89. Of this — 

Missouri contains 6,246,871 

Illinois 13,254,473 

Iowa 3,780,253 

Wisconsin 3,746,036 

Minnesota 554,397 

Or a fraction less than one-sixth. 27,582,030 

The total value of crops for 1864 is estimated by the Agri- 
cultural Bureau of the Department of the Interior to have been 
$1,564,543,690. Of this sum- 
Illinois produced $214,488,426 

Wisconsin 51,938,952 

Missouri 52,996,592 

Iowa 71,100,481 

Minnesota , 13,168.123 

$403,692,574 

Or more than one-fourth of the value of the entire crops of the 
country. But these estimates of value are the estimated value 
of the various products in the States where produced, 

Of the value of the live stock, which, on the 1st of January, 
1865, was $990,876,128— 

Illinois had .......$116,588,288 

Missouri 44,431,766 

Iowa 66,572,496 

"Wisconsin 36,911,165 

Minnesota 8,860,015 

Or more than one-fourth. $273,363,730 



146 CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

A juster standard by which to measure the productiveness of 
these States would be a comparison of the amount of their 
respective products, since the value is so largely affected by the 
distance from market. 

The great staples of agriculture are wheat, corn, beef, and 
pork. Comparing these, we find that the total number of 
bushels of wheat produced in all the States and Territories in 
1864 (except the cotton States, whose production was almost 
nominal, probably not more than one-sixth of what it was in 
1860), was 160,695,823 bushels, of which— 

Illinois produced 33,371,173 

Missouri 3,281,514 

Wisconsin 14,168,317 

Iowa 12,649,807 

Minnesota 2,634,975 

66,105,786 
Or a fraction less than one-half. 

The total number of bushels of corn produced was 530,451,403. 

Illinois produced 138,356,135 

Missouri 36,635,011 

Wisconsin 10,087,053 

Iowa 55,261,240 

Minnesota 4,647,329 

244,9S6,768 
Or nearly one-half. 

The Avhole number of cattle and oxen, January 1, 1865, was 
7,072,591. 

Illinois had 97S.700 

Missouri 471,006 

Wisconsin 388,760 

Iowa : 561,388 

Minnesota 127,175 

2,526,979 
Or more than one-third. 

The total number of hogs was 13,070,887. 

Illinois had 2,034,231 

Missouri , 988,857 

Wisconsin 340,638 

Iowa ■ 1,423,567 

Minnesota 109,016 

4,896,309 
Or more than one-third. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 147 

The entire population of the United States in 1860 was 
31,443,322. 

Illinois contained 1,711,951 

Iowa 711,951 

Missouri 1,182,012 

Minnesota 172,123 

Wisconsin 775,881 

4,553,918 
Or about one-seventh. 

Thus it will be seen that these five States, possessing only 
one-seventh of all the population, and one-sixth of all the im- 
proved land, nevertheless, in 1864, produced more than one- 
fourth in value of the entire crop — more than one-fourth in value 
of all the live stock — more than one-third in number of all the 
cattle and hogs, and nearly one-half of all the wheat and corn 
grown in the United States. Here we find four and one-half 
millions of agriculturists, along the Upper Mississippi, produc- 
ing, in a single year, from one-third to one-half of all the 
productions of the leading staples, of an estimated value of six 
hundred and seventy-seven millions fifty-six thousand two 
hundred and four dollars. 

An examination of the statistics fully establishes the additional 
fact that these five States, during the years 1861, '62, and '63, 
shipped East 150 per cent, more corn and meal, and 25 per cent, 
more pork products, than were exported from the entire country 
during the same period. These States not only supply the export 
wheat of the entire country, but also the export corn and pork 
products. The contributions, therefore, made by Illinois, Wis- 
consin, Misssouri, and Minnesota, to the exports of the United 
States in these three leading agricultural staples alone, are as 
follows : - 

1860-1. 1861-2. 1862-3. 

Wheat $48,938,780 $44,187,14S $55,647,979- 

Corh and meal 6,387,160 9,609,879 9,623,357 

Pork products 4,687,781 10,217,281 16,424,338 

Total $60,013,724 $64,014,308 $81,695,674 

The entire exports of domestic products of the United States 
amounted to — 

A 1860-1. 1861-2. 1862-3. 

$217,666,953 $190,699,387 $260,666,110 



348 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

The average exports of the country for the three years were 
$222,874,183 33, and the average exports which these five States 
contributed in wheat, corn, and pork alone, was §68,575,568 66, 
very nearly one-third. 

In 1861, '62, and '63, the average yearly tonnage of all Ameri- 
can vessels engaged in trans-oceanic commerce, and entering 
the ports of the United States, was 2,564,257 tons, and the 
average tonnage of all the vessels of all countries engaged in 
oceanic commerce, and entering the ports of the United States, 
was 5,341,867 tons. ISTow, the three staples contributed by these 
five Upper Mississippi States to our exports were equivalent to 
1,315,000 tons annually. They, therefore, not only contributed 
one-third in Value to our entire exports, but gave employment 
upon the ocean to more than one-half of all our American ton- 
nage, which was equivalent to one-fourth of all the tonnage of 
all nations, our own included, entering the United States, and 
engaged in trans-oceanic commerce. History cannot furnish a 
parallel. 

The Agricultural Bureau, basing its calculation on past results, 
makes the following approximate estimate of the cereal product 
of the Northwest for the next four decades : 

Years. Bushels. 

1870 762,200.000 

1S80 1, 219,520^000 

3890 1.951,232,000 

1900 „ 3,121,970,000 

"We consume in this country an average of about five bushels 
of wheat to the inhabitant, but, if necessary, can get along with 
something less, as we have many substitutes, such as corn, 
rye, and buckwheat. It is estimated that our population will 
be, in — 

1870 42,000,000 

1880 „ 56.000,000 

1890 77,000,000 

1900, more than 100,000,000 

Accordingly, we can use for home consumption alone, of 
wheat, in — 

1870 210.000,000 bushels. 

1880 280,000,000 " 

1890 385,000,000 

1900 500,000,000 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 149 

From 1790 to 1817, breadstuff's were the chief exports of some 
of the New England and nearly all of the Atlantic States. Now 
New England produces but eleven quarts of wheat to each 
inhabitant, and consumes annually of agricultural productions- 
$50,000,000 more than she produces. Pennsylvania, 1he first, 
and New York, the third, among the States in the production of 
wheat in 1860, are now calling upon the West, the former for 
ten per cent, and the latter for sixty per cent, of its bread; 
while Ohio, so long the promise land of the emigrant, is now 
growing but very little more wheat than will meet the wants- 
of a population equal to her own. Nearly every State in South 
America, and nearly every nation in Europe, imports agricul- 
tural products, and in 1868 the United States sent its breadstuff's 
to sixty different foreign markets. 

Eussia, the chief grain exporting country of the Old World, 
from 1857 to 1862, inclusive, only exported annually: 

Wheat 10,897,292 bushels. 

Corn 2,211,932 

Thirty years ago steamboats engaged in the river trade aggre- 
gated but a few score. Now there are over a thousand. In 
1865 the imports of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and two or 
three minor Mississippi towns, were of the value of $730,000,000. 
As the export trade of these places was about equal to their 
imports, we have for the entire commerce of these points nearly 
$1,500,000,000. But this does not include the commerce of 
New Orleans, Memphis, Dubuque, and other important towns. 
Include the trade of these points, and the aggregate value of the 
trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries (the Ohio and Mis- 
souri) in 1865 was more than two thousand millions of dol- 
lars — a sum equivalent to three times the whole foreign 
commerce of the United States. 

However important the above figures may appear, they must 
be taken as only a fraction of what will be the yield of the 
Yalley States when they reach a high state of cultivation. 

Not only are we great in coal, iron, wheat, and corn, but 
transcendent in the production of the precious metals, as the 
following tables will show : 



150 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 







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CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



151 



•2 

CO 

CO 

.CJ 
to 

•S 

CO 


... 

Total amount 
of both met- 
als from 1492 
to 1868. 


a o 
oo o 

CO o 

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t- o 

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00 
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00 

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CO 




200,000,000 

,000 gold, and 
59 silver, and 
iggregates we 
a grand total, 
nkind during 


>ur gold mines have yielded more than 
seen by the following table that the 
that of any other nation on the earth. 


"ct 

o> . 

Cm CT 

5 2 

o? 

< 




$6,047,071,459 
597,400,000 


o 

CO 

© 

©" 
© 


CT 
CT 

cT 

CO 

co" 




140,000,000 

ting to $GO,O0C 
, $6,789,971,4 

If to these 
e obtain, as 
e uses of mr 


CO -S 


3 


$3,060,654,430 
1,106,200,000 


© 
o 
o 

©* 

o 
o 

©" 

55 


© 

CO 

00 

CO 

13~ 




60,000,000 

ted as amoun 
f6, 854, 430 gold 
s since 1492. 
Mity years, w 
opriated to th 


."* So 


ui 

.Soo 

Is 

. °° 
coS 

2S 
*2 


> 

H2 


2 ° 

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lO co 

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CT 




been compt 
reduce $5,1 
lized nation 
the last tw 
ictal3, appr 


492 to the commencement of 1 
New Zealand, and portions of 




$1,265,080,000 
340,000,000 
890,000,000 


© 

© 
© 

o" 

CO 

o 

IO 
CT 

CM~ 




America have, 
table, will p 
e among civi 
ern Asia, for 
mt of both n 


to 1868 c 
it will be 
surpasses 


as 

Oao 

gs 


CD 

02 


$1,077,981,674 
145,800,000 




-* 

CD 

OO 
fc- 

CO 

Si 




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• M2.2 2 °* 

S "^ . "* CO 

: j2 g «_ cs 


above figures that from 1848 
ry on this hemisphere. And 
America together, since 1492 


o 

o 


© © 

tH © 

m< cT 
t- o 

O -sj< 

^~ h-T 

3 CO 


! 


CO 

T* 
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e date of the 
Is as statec 
of gold tin 
a and Cent 
12,906,825,8; 


Products of Gold and Silver from l 
Australia, 


CO 

0) 

is o 

Si 

2 g 


3 


2 o 
2 ° 
o © 

©" o~ 

CO o 
lO CO 

co ,-r 

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OSS? <a 

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o 
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een by the 
her count 
and South 






Europe and Asiatic 
Austriilia and New 




1 


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p 

3 

Is 

3 


It will be s 
those of any ot 
yield of North 



152 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



Table showing the growth of coinage of the United States frcmi 1793 to 1867. 



Tears . 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Copper. 


Total . 


1793 to 1300, 8 yrs 


$1,014,290 00 


$1,440,454 75 


$79,390 82 


$2,534,135 57 


1801 to 1810, 10 yrs 


3,250,742 50 


3,569,165 25 


151,246 39 


6,971,154 14 


1811 to 1820, 10 yrs 


3,166,510 00 


5,970,810 95 


191,158 57 


9,328,479 52 


1821 to 1830, 10 yrs 


1,903,092 50 


16,781,046 95 


151,412 20 


18,835,551 65 


1831 to 1840, 10 yrs 


18,791,862 00 


27,199,779 00 


342,322 21 


46,333,963 21 


1841 to 1850, 10 yrs 


89,443,328 00 


22,226,755 00 


380,670 83 


112,050,753 S3 


1851 to 1860, 9Myrs 


470,838,180 98 


48,087,763 13 


1,249,612 53 


520,175,556 64 


1801 to 1867, 7 yrs 


296,967,464 63 


12,638,732 11 


4,869,350 00 


314,475,546 74 


Total, 74 yrs 


$885,375,470 61 


$137,914,587 14 


$7,415,163 55 


$1,030,705,14130 



I Lave already intimated that, instead of the people of the 
Yalley States looking to India, China, and Japan, for commerce, 
as the popular but superficial judgment seems now to incline, 
their interest lies in the tropics of our own hemisphere ; 
that instead of indulging in wild and chimerical speculations, 
across distant oceans to distant lands, for things relatively use- 
less in life, they must look to the islands of the Gulf, Mexico, 
Central and South America, for the wealth and products of those 
countries. 

An important element of that wealth may be inferred from 
the following table : 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



153 



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154 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



By the preceding tables it will be seen tbat a people grasping- 
for wealth can find more of it in the Southern countries than- 
in the Orient, and certainly they will go there for it. 

ISTHMUS CANAL. 

Besides whatever importance there may be attached to the 
trade of the Orient, our practical age, united with the necessities 
of our commerce, will demand the construction of a ship canal 
across the Isthmus of Darien. Not only our own commerce, but 
also that of England and France, demand its construction. The 
most important interest demanding its construction, at the 
present time, is represented by the following tables : 

Table of the saving in distance from New York to the following-- 
places, by the Isthmus of Panama, over the Cape routes. 



From New York to— 



Calcutta 

Canton 

Shanghai 

Valparaiso 

Callao 

Guayaquil 

Panama 

San Bias 

Mazatlan 

San Diego 

SanFrancisco 

"Wellington, N. Z 

Melbourne, Australia 



Miles. 
17,500 
19,500 
20,000 



13,740 
13,230 



Miles. 

23,000 

21,500 

22,000 

12,900 

13,500 

14,300 

16,000 

17,800 

18,000 

18,500 

19,000 

11,100 

12.720 



c3 =2 



Miles . 

13,400 

10,600 

10,400 

4,800 

3,500 

2,800 

2,000 

3,800 

4,000 

4,500 

5,000 

8,4S0 

9,890 



'?£ 



Miles. 

9,600 
10,900 
11,600 

8,100 
10,000 
11,500 
14,000 
14,000 
14,000 
14,000 
14,000 

2,620 

2,830 



Miles. 
4,100 
8,900 

9,600 



5.200 
3,340 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



155 



Table showing the trade of the United States that would pass 
through the Isthmus Canal if now finished. 



Countries traded with. 



Exports and 
Imports. 



Alaska 

Dutch East Indies 

British Australia and New Zealand, 

British East Indies , 

French East Indies 

Half of Mexico , 

Half of New Granada , 

Central America 

Chili , 

Peru 

Ecuador „ 

Sandwich Islands 

China 

Other ports in Asia and Pacific 

"Whale Fisheries 

California to East United States 

Value of cargo 

Value of ships at $50 per ton 

Total value of ships and cargo 



126,537 

904,550 

4,728,083 

11,744,151 

98,432 

9,601,063 

5,375,354 

425,081 

6,645,634 

716,679 

48,979 

1,157,849 

12,752,062 

80,143 

10,796,090 

35,000,000 



M 00. 294, 687 

92,874,250 



$193,168,937 



Tonnage. 



5,73a 

16,589 

52,105 

177,121 

3,665 

34,673 

131,708 

36,599 

63,749 

193,131 

1,979 

33,876 

123,578 

4,549 

116,730 

861,698 

$ 1,857,485 



)2,874,250 



Table showing the trade of England that would pass through the 
Isthmus Canal if now finished. 



Countries traded with . 



Half of Mexico 

Half of Central America. 
Half of New Granada.... 

Chili 

Peru 



Ecuador.... 

China, 

Java, 

Singapore, 

Australia and New Zealand 

Sandwich Islands 

California 



Outward only, forty days saved 
by Canal 



Value of trade 

Value of ships at $50 per ton. 



Total value of trade and ships. 



-Ci-X-JJUI LS clIJU 


Ton n a <re. 


Imports. 




$ 2,775,137 


' $ 11,833 


1,244,817 


5,615 


2,437,605 


10,188 


15,486,110 


118,311 


20,473,520 


244,319 


360,015 


1,820 


( 7,077,390 


68,520 


J. 3,821,410 


i6,ooa 


( 4 364.070 


16,500 


78,246,095 


522,42© 


520,560 


1,950 


2,378,105 


11,800 


$139,184,834 


$ 1,029,295 


51,464,750 






$190,649,5S4 


$51,464,750 



156 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 



Table showing the trade of France that would pass through the 
Isthmus Canal if now finished. 



Countries traded with. 



Chili 

Peru 

Half of Mexico 

Half ot New Granada 

Ecuador 

Bolivia 

California 

Suteh East Indies, } Outward only. 

Sandwich Islands 

Phillipine Islands 

Australia 

Value of cargoes 

Value of ships at $50 per ton 

Total value 



Exports and 
Imports. 


Tonnage. 


$10,000,000 


25,688 


13,160,000 




2,790,000 


10,004 


1,090,000 


2,389 


440,000 


1,651 


100,000 


1,000 


2,073,859 


8,997 


f 2,180,000 
\ 4,440,000 


2,028 


20,400 


2,000,000 


4,119 


1,000,000 


1,463 


19,800,000 


50,000 


$59,073,859 


162,735 


8,136,750 









$67,210,609 



8,136,750 



Table showing the total tonnage that would yearly pass through 
the Isthmus Canal if now finished. 



United States...., 

England 

France 

Other countries. 

Total 



Tons. 



1,857,485 

1,029,295 

162,735 

44,555 



3,094,070 



Table showing the general result of the foregoing tables. 



Tonnage and trade of the United States.... 

" " England 

" France 

" " Other countries. 



$193,168,937 

190,649,584 

67,210,609 

16,802,000 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE, 157 

These tables show item3 of vast importance to the trade of 
the world and its approaching change. That a ship canal will 
be constructed across the Isthmus, there is no manner of doubt. 
In further demand of its construction, the United States would 
save yearly by it, in her shipping, $85,995,930. England would 
save by it yearly $9,950,348. France would save by it yearly 
$2,183,930. The trade of the world would save by its construc- 
tion' $49,530,208. 

"With this vast amount of trade awaiting its construction, we 
can safely say that the time for its completion is not remote, and 
it will give a new growth and vitality to our country and to the 
Yalley States. Then will the Mississippi river and the Lake 
and Gulf railways become the greatest commercial channels on 
the continent, thus increasing our internal trade and augment- 
ing the commercial supremacy of St. Louis. The close prox- 
imity of our Gulf ports to such a canal would necessarily control 
that portion of our government trade for the Yalley States, and, 
by the necessities of our trade and the wants of the people, give 
the control of that trade to St. Louis. 

Several efforts have been made within the last sixteen years 
to provide for the construction of this great canal, but as yet 
without success. Yery recently a meeting was held in New 
York city for the purpose of organizing a company and securing 
the required financial aid for its construction. The following 
statement of the meeting is taken from the December number 
of Appleton's Railway Guide, and will be found interesting to 
the reader : 

IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE — A CANAL 
TO BE MADE ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OP PANAMA. 

At a meeting of the corporation of the Isthmus Canal Com- 
pany, held at the residence of Peter Cooper, Esq., the company 
was organized by electing Mr. Cooper as president, and Fred. 
A. Conklin as secretary. 

The Secretary of State of the United States, the Hon. William 
H. Seward, and the Attorney-General of the United States, the 
Hon. William M. Evarts, having come from Washington to con- 
fer with the leading capitalists and merchants of this city upon 
the subject, were present, and laid many important facts before 
the meeting. Estimates from the highest sources state the cost 



158 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

of the work at $100,000,000. The following gentlemen were 
appointed commissioners to obtain subscriptions to the stock of 
the company : W". F. Coleman, Marshall O. Eoberts, Cornelius 
K. Garrison, William B. Duncan, and Eichard Schell. 

Among those present at the meeting were many gentlemen 
prominent as capitalists, merchants, and as members of the 
learned professions. Charts of surveys of the proposed route, 
by Frederick W. Kelley and other eminent engineers, were 
exhibited, which demonstrated the feasibility of the undertak- 
ing, and entire confidence was expressed in its ultimate success 
as a work of engineering and as a commercial enterprise. 

During the discussion, the Hon. William H. Seward spoke 
substantially as follows : 

SPEECH OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 

" Gentlemen : Ever since the canal of the Pharaohs 'across 
the Isthmus of Suez fell into disuse, and was lost under changes of 
society and nature, commerce has desired the restoration of that 
original and most feasible channel of trade and intercouse 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific nations. The discovery of 
the Cape of Good Hope supplied a costly and hazardous substi- 
tute, which was eagerly accepted. The exploration of the 
newly-discovered American continent, at the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, disclosed at once necessities for a better chan- 
nel to be constructed across that continent, and made a full 
revelation that that better channel could be constructed across 
that continent, and nowhere else. During the past three hun- 
dred years statesmanship and humanitarianism have combined 
with ever-increasing diligence and effort to find the means of 
effecting an enterprise which is, perhaps, the only one that ever 
has commanded universal assent and commended itself to the 
desire of all mankind. Every advance of modern civilization in 
Europe, the establishment of every new nation in America, 
every opening of any secluded Asiatic State and nation that has 
occurred, has increased the zeal and the energy of the friends of 
progress in favor of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien. We 
habitually feel and say that we are living in an important and 
interesting period. We do, indeed, have occasion and oppor- 
tunity to labor effectually in various ways in the cause of 
civilization and humanity; but, if I do not mistake, the chief of 
all the advantages of statesmen of the present day in all the 
countries is. that they can take part in the construction of a 
canal across the Isthmus of Darien. 

" Gentlemen, to accept our respective parts in this great enter- 
prise is the work of this night. We are Americans. We are 
charged with responsibilities of establishing on the American 
continent a higher condition of civilization and freedom than 



/ 

CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 159 

lias ever before been attained in any part of the world. We all 
acknowledge and feel this responsibility. The destiny which we 
wish to realize as Americans is set plainly before us, and dis- 
tinctly within our reach ; but that destiny can only be attained 
by the execution of the Darien ship canal. The reason is obvi- 
ous. While the electric telegraph can and must be used for the 
interchange of ideas between nations, and while improved high- 
ways must and will be used for overland travel and intercourse, 
yet the mineral, forest, and agricultural bulky productions of 
the earth can only be exchanged by navigation, and this naviga- 
tion must be made as cheap and as frequent and as expeditious 
as is possible. But as to navigation by sailing vessels, com- 
merce can no longer afford to us the circuitous and perilous 
navigation around the Capes. It must and will have shorter 
•channels of transport, and of these there can be but two — the 
one across the Isthmus of Suez, the other across the Isthmus of 
Darien. A canal across the Isthmus of Suez already approaches 
its completion. If that channel is to secure the patronage of 
universal commerce, it will bo fully enlarged and completely 
adapted to the interests of modern commerce. In that case the 
commerce of even the Atlantic American coast, from the St. 
Lawrence to Cape Horn, will be turned eastward across the 
Atlantic, and through the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the 
Indian Ocean, to India and China. It would be a reproach to 
American enterprise and statesmanship to suppose that we are 
thus to become tributaries to ancient and effete Egypt, when by 
piercing the Isthmus of Darien we can bring the trade of even 
the Mediterranean, and of the European Atlantic coast, through 
a channel of our own, so palpably indicated by nature that all 
the world has accepted it as feasible and necessary. 

"We have undertaken to develop the resources of our own 
continent, and to regulate and restore the Asiatic nations to 
free self-government, prosperity, and happiness. The Darien 
ship canal is the only enterprise connected with the great work 
of civilization wbich remains to be undertaken. It was a mis- 
take to suppose that we have been hitherto either inactive or 
idle in regard to this important matter. We have built a rail- 
road across the Isthmus of Panama, and within twelve months 
more we shall have stretched a railroad across the continent 
from New York to San Francisco. We have abundant assur- 
ance that these achievements are profitable and useful. Both of 
them, however, are profitable and useful only as types and 
shadows of the Darien ship canal, which we all feel and know 
must be transcendently profitable and transcendently useful. 

"The executive Government of the United States, gentlemen, 
has adopted the enterprise in which you are engaged. It has 
provided for a full, satisfactory, and final survey, preparatory to 



160 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

the construction of the Darien ship canal. It is engaged in 
negotiating with the Eepublic of Colombia for its consent to 
your achievement of the enterprise. The President will go for- 
ward with renewed zeal and vigor on receiving the assurances 
which you have given me that the city of New York has named 
the men who will undertake that achievement, and stand ready 
to furnish the hundred million dollars which it may be expected 
to cost." 

EXPENSES. 

Lest some should still be ready to object on account of some 
trivial cause, and especially on account of the public expense 
necessary to make the change and erect new buildings, I submit 
the following statement from the Hon. Hugh McCulloch, Secre- 
tary of the United States Treasury, giving the cost ot the public 
grounds and buildings at "Washington : 

Treasury Department, September 28, 1868. 
Sir: In reply to your inquiries, I have to say that the total amount 
expended fn the District of Columbia from the time the seat of govern- 
ment was located there to June 30th, 1868, for public works of every 
description, including buildings and works of art, is $37,390,853.08. 

The real estate, exclusive of buildings, was assessed at $13,412,293.26, 
in 1858. Since that time there has been no assessment of which the 
Department is advised. 

"Very respectfully, 

hugh Mcculloch, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
L. U. Reavxs, Esq., 

St. Louis, Mo. 

By this statement it will be seen that the expense of erecting 
the public buildings at Washington City is far below the amount 
supposed by those who have ventured an opinion upon the 
subject. 

On the following page will be found a statement from the 
Hon. O. H. Browning, Secretary of the Interior, showing the 
extent of the public grounds in the District of Columbia. The 
statement, like that of the public expenditures, is much below 
that which the uninformed individual would have estimated. 



CHANGE OP NATIONAL EMIGRE. 



161 



Department of the Interior, 1 

Washington, D. C, December 19, 1868. / 

Sir: Referring to your request of the 1st inst. , 1 inclose herewith for 
your information a statement showing the extent of the public grounds 
in the District of Columbia. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

O. H. BROWNING, 

Secretary . 
L. U. Reavis, Esq., 

St. Louis, Mo. 





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162 CHANOE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

A change of the seat of government does not imply a loss of 
the public buildings at Washington, by any means, for all the 
valuable material can be easily moved and put in the new 
buildings ; and by this means new and better buildings can be 
erected at a less cost than were the present ones. Good engin- 
eers freely express the entire feasibility and safety of taking 
down and removing either or all the present government 
buildings, and they can be taken down, moved, and newly 
erected, in five years. Boats can bring the materials all the 
way round by water, and land them at the new seat of govern- 
ment at far less expense than was first required to collect them 
together at Washington. 

But the cost of the change and the erection of the buildings 
is a matter of but small consideration. An expense of 
$1< 0,000,000 would be of little concern to this great nation, 
and especially when it would probably be twenty years in 
spending it. It is true that for the Capital of the New Bepublic 
would be required buildings of more magnificent structure than 
those of the Old Government — more magnificent than were 
ever yet wrought by human hands. In anticipation of loftier 
and purer American statesmen than now are, the Bepublic will 
require more magnificent legislative halls. In anticipation of 
the future grandeur and goodness of the Bepublic, department 
buildings far superior and more commodious than the present 
will be required. In anticipation of a wiser and better people 
all over the land, the New Bepublic will be required to give 
national aid to the distribution of knowledge among its citizens 
and mankind, and thus will be demanded departments for these 
beneficent purposes. Yet the expense for all is insignificant, 
when considered in the light of the future growth of the 
Bepublic. 

Again, the national expense will be reduced, by the removal of 
the seat of government to the Valley States, by cutting short 
the mileage of new members of Congress that will yet claim 
seats as representatives and senators of the new States yet to 
be born into the family of the Bepublic. This item alone, small 
as it may seem, will in time show largely on the side of 
economy. 

Again, there exists an intolerable objection to the seat of 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 168 

government remaining at Washington, on account of the 
inconvenience to reach it, and also on account of the poverty 
and monopoly of its markets. Those who know anything of the 
markets at Washington City know that they are scantily sup- 
plied, and that, too, with products that bear no comparison 
with Western products; and besides their inferiority and 
scarcity, the people are compelled to buy or do without. These 
would seem to be insignificant items ; but when we consider the 
immense use of such products at a national capital, they at 
once become items of great concern. 

The seat of government, located at St. Louis, will be placed at 
the center of the best means of public communication from all 
parts of the country afforded on the continent ; besides, situ- 
ated in the midst of the best products of the Mississippi Valley, 
where there can be no scarcity and no monopoly. 

It has been foolishly argued by some that the seat of govern- 
ment, at any point, is a means to generate demoralization and 
corruption in the people. This objection is so silly that it 
deserves to be noticed in order to render it contemptible. It is 
one of those objections often made by individuals who can always 
see more faults in their neighbors than they can in themselves. 
It is made by those who look upon the dark side of the picture 
of human life with doubt and distrust, and, by thus expressing 
themselves, are enemies to the highest interests of human society. 
Away from that dark picture ; away from the faith or influence 
of him or her that does not have implicit confidence in the 
success of the Eepublic ! Never before in the history of man- 
kind has individual or national life reached so high a plane in 
intellectual and moral progress as at the present hour. To con- 
tend that the seat of government of the Eepublic is a means to 
breed corruption and guilt, is to contend that one's self is a 
villain, and that his neighbors are hypocrites and demagogues, 
that society is a farce, and the law a blank. It is not so. The 
capitals of England, France, Turkey, China, Eussia, Mexico, 
and nearly all the great nations of the earth, are located at the 
great cities. 

Let us have faith in the people, and let it be said in all truth 
that if the people send honest and upright men to the national 
legislature, society will be as pure and statesmanship as elevated 



161 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

at the seat of government as the most upright and enlightened 
can desire. 1 

Let us look on the bright side, and resolve that none shall 
represent the New Bepublic but the pure and the wise, the 
faithful and the upright, and all will be well. 

One of the most important duties for the American people to 
perform is that which looks directly to the elevation of the 
national life, and this work must be begun at home. Let no 
man be blind to this fact. If the stream is impure, the fountain 
must be, also. If the people want temperance, virtue, morality, 
honesty, and moral and intellectual grandeur, in city councils, 
State legislatures, and in the national Congress, they must first 
acquire the supremacy of those excellencies at home ; and they 
who do not contend earnestly for these virtues and attainments 
at home are hypocritical grumblers against their neighbors and 
rulers. Then, let the lesson first be unerringly taught at 
home, and its meaning will be indelibly impressed upon the 
national life. 

Already the sentiment for a better state of society and gov- 
ernment is germinating in the hearts of the people, and corrupt 
politicians will soon give place, all over the land, to worthy and 
capable statesmen. Let us all labor to hasten the change, in 
the hope that, when" some future Plutarch weighs the coming 
men of the Eepublic, they will be the grandest growth of the 
human race. 



SPECIAL AND LOCAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



In addition to the general arguments which have been given 
in the preceding pages in favor of the removal of the seat of 
government to the Mississippi Valley, and the indication of St. 
Louis as the most suitable place for it, the following map of 
lands, together with local and special facts, are presented as 
supplemental considerations. 

Last winter the Hon. C. A. Newcomb, member of Congress 
from Missouri, offered a bill in Congress providing for the 
removal of the seat of government from Washington City to 
St. Louis. In co-operation with Mr. Newcomb's bill, the Hon. 
G. A. Finkelnburg, member of the Legislature of Missouri, 
offered the following bill authorizing the State of Missouri to 
cede a certain portion of her territory to the exclusive use and 
control of the General Government, in consideration of the 
National Capital being moved to the portion of territory ceded. 

An Act to cede a portion of the territory of St. Louis county, 

in the State of Missouri, to the United States of America, for 

a seat of government of the United States. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
Missouri, as follows : That so much of the territory of the State 
of Missouri as is included within limits and boundaries following, 
to-wit : Beginning at a point in the Mississippi river one mile 
south of Chouteau avenue, in the city of St. Louis; thence 
west ten miles; thence south to the center of the Meramec 
river; thence down the Meramec river to its junction with 
the Mississippi river; thence up the Mississippi river to the 
place of beginning — be and the same is hereby ceded and 
transferred to the United States of America ; and all the right, 
title, authority, and jurisdiction, now owned, possessed, exer- 
cised, and enjoyed, by the State of Missouri, in or to or over 
said territory, is hereby vested in the United States of America, 
upon the sole and express condition that the seat of govern- 
ment of the United States of America shall be removed to said 
territory on or before the first day of January, 1880. 

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That said territory shall not vest 
in the United States of America until Congress shall pass an 



166 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

act moving the seat of government of the United States of 
America to said territory, and authorizing the laying out of a 
capitol and public grounds; and any removal of the seat of 
government from said territory any time thereafter shall imme- 
diately revert all the title, jurisdiction, and authority in, to, and 
over said territory in the State of Missouri : And provided, 
further, that no change of government, or jurisdiction, which 
may take place under this act, shall affect the rights of property 
of individuals or bodies corporate within the territory aforesaid. 

Sec. 3. As soon as Congress shall pass an act removing the 
seat of government to said territon 7 , the Governor shall formally 
transfer the same to the United States of America. 

Seo. 4. The Governor shall forward copies of this act to the 
presiding officers of each House of Congress, to be laid before 
said Houses for consideration. 

The district described in the above bill has an area of about 
90 square miles. 

A vote was taken in the House of Eepresentatives on Judge 
Newcomb's bill, and, under the circumstances, was more favor- 
able for the removal than the friends could have expected. 
Owing to the lateness of the time at which Mr. Finkelnburg's 
bill was introduced in the Legislature, a vote was not reached. 
But there can be no question about the State of Missouri ceding 
to the General Government such a district of territory as may 
be required for the purposes of a National Capital. 

SHAW'S SUBDIVISION. 

The map of grounds submitted to illustrate this part of the 
subject of the pamphlet shows the district described in Mr. 
Finkelnburg's bill, with an addition of a strip one mile in width 
on the north side, which is added to include Mr. Shaw's sub- 
division and his splendid garden. 

Mr. Finkelnburg made the selection of the district described 
in his bill, in accordance with the public sentiment of the people 
of St. Louis, who, without hesitation, look thither to several 
beautiful sites, one of which seems fated to be the seat of 
empire for the New Republic. 

By reference to the map of this district, it will be seen there 
are four shaded tracts of land, three lying upon the Mississippi 
river, and one back from it. The = two southern tracts of land, as 



CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 167" 

will be seen on the map, are the property of the Hon. Henrj^ T- 
Blow, and known as Clifton Heights. The tract farthest up the^ 
river is Jefferson Barracks, and is owned by the Government. 
The shaded tract on the north side of the map, and out from the 
city, is the property of Mr. Henry Shaw, whose reputation has- 
gone all over the country, on account of his fine botanical garden. 
Mr. Shaw's property is situated at a distance of four and five 
miles from the river. His garden property and that immedi- 
ately around it, although extremely beautiful and valuable is 
not so elevated as many of the adjoining locations. However 
beyond his garden, a little more than one mile, is a beautiful 
broad prairie ridge, with an elevation of 200 feet above the city* 
directrix. It is the most beautiful site back from the river that 
is in the vicinity of the city of St. Louis, and on account of its. 
situation, its elevation, and its surroundings, it is regarded as 
one of the favorite and suitable localities for the Government 
to erect new public buildings. Besides the general favorable- 
ness of this location, its close proximity to Mr. Shaw's fine 
garden would be an item of great concern to the new seat of 
government, for his is much the finest garden in the United 
States, and infinitely surpasses those of the Government at 
Washington. Land adjoining Mr. Shaw's sub-division is from 
$500 to 12,000 per acre. 

CLIFTON HEIGHTS. 

Passing from Mr. Shaw's sub-division to Clifton Heights the- 
property of Mr. Blow, we find an entirely different situation. 

Clifton Heights is situated ten miles below the city. It con- 
sists of 1,300 acres, and, as will be seen by the shadings upon 
the map, lies immediately upon the great Father of Waters and 
has a river front of five miles. The topography and general 
character and location of Clifton Heights cannot be equaled by 
any other property upon the river in the vicinity of St. Louis 
and is not surpassed anywhere from its source to its mouth. 
It is high and commanding, with views equal to any of the 
Alleghanies ; and when the art of man, with equal skill, thero 
unites with nature, no people can point to a place more remark- 
able for its beeauty, healthfulness, and commanding position.. 



168 CHANGE OF NATIONAL EMPIRE. 

In fact, it would seem that nature, far back in the past, had 
especially provided this beautiful site on the great Mississippi 
river for the seat of empire for the New Eepublic. 

This property has an elevation of 252 feet above tho river, 
which is much higher than any other ground around the city, 
and from its favorable situation it commands a view of 50 miles 
each way up and down the stream ; and with the Government 
buildings erected upon this elevated plateau, they will occupy 
a position which, united with their great size, will afford a view 
to the traveler upon the river or railroad which will far surpass 
any views on the Hudson or Potomac — views which will never 
grow dull to the vision. 

Land about Clifton Heights ranges from $80 to $300 per 
acre, and every advantage for the supply of good water and 
good building stone is afforded from the bluffs of the Mississippi 
and the Meramec rivers. 

JEFFERSON BARRACKS. 

Situated on the river, just above Clifton Heights, is Jefferson 
Barracks, the property of the Government, consisting of 1,700 
acres, which would afford ample room for the Government 
buildings, but for its unfavorable character would not be so well 
suited for such an important purpose. The ground is not so 
elevated as that of Clifton Heights, or as that of Mr. Shaw's 
division. Therefore it is not probable that the Government 
would fix upon that tract in the event of a change, but would, 
no doubt, retain it for a few years, until the sale of it would be 
an item of pecuniary importance. 

In this connection it may be proper to state that when Con- 
gress orders a removal of the seat of government, it will be 
necessary, as under the Old Government, to provide for the tem- 
porary use of buildings for Congress and the departments at 
the place selected for the new Capital, in order to admit of the 
removal of the present ones at Washington. In that event, St. 
Louis, or whatever other place may be selected, will no doubt 
be asked to furDish suitable buildings for temporary use. 



WHAT TIME. 



The general mind is faithless of what goes much beyond its own experience. It 
refuses to receive, or it receives with distrust, conclusions, however strongly sustained 
by facts and fair deductions, which go much beyond its ordinary range of thought. 
It is especially skeptical and intolerant toward the avowal of opinions, however well 
founded, which are sanguine of great future changes. It does not comprehend them, 
and therefore refuses to believe; but it sometimes goes further, and, without examina- 
tion, scornfully rejects. To seek for the truth is the proper object of those who, from 
the past and present, undertake to say what will be in the future, and, when the 
truth is found, to express it with as little referrence to what will be thought of it as if 
putting forth the solution of a mathematical problem.— J. W. Scott. 

The reader of this little pamphlet will no doubt be desirous 
to know what time the seat of government will be moved from 
its present place to the Mississippi Yalley, or, at least, will be 
anxious to know what time one so sanguine as the writer has fixed 
for the change. I unhesitatingly answer that the change will 
be made within five years from January 1, 1869. Before two 
years from January 1, 1869, Congress will authorize, by its own 
act, the removal of the seat of government from its present 
place, and soon will follow the President, national archives, and 
the legislature of the Kepublic. 

I know there are those who will regard this statement more 
visionary than any preceding one I have made ; but, to such as 
choose to look with discredit upon it, I can only hope that expe- 
rience will teach them that which they are now unable to 
comprehend. He who does not comprehend the workings of 
the under life-current of the Eepublic at the present time, is shut 
out from a comprehension of the future, and thus he becomes a 
conservative, a fogy — drift-wood in the rolling tide of progress. 

Ours is a moving time. Changes come much sooner than 
most men expect them. The Hon. Horace Greeley but a few 
years ago did not expect slavery to be abolished in this century. 
Pof. Morse did not expect the ocean to be spanned by a tele- 
graph for two or more generations hence. Dr. Lardner, the 
most learned philosopher of England in his day, declared in a 
11 



170 CHANGE OP NATTONAITeMPIRE. 

lecture, in Liverpool, that he would eat the first steam engine 
that propelled a vessel across the ocean. Six months afterward 
a vessel did cross the ocean by the use of a steam engine, but 
was not eaten. There are, no doubt, some wise men with large 
stomachs, who will read this pamphlet or hear of it, that will 
propose to eat the first public building erected on the new Capital 
grounds in the Mississippi Valley in the next generation. There 
are, no doubt, men of would-be public spirit and enterprise who 
will readily volunteer to do this eating. 

"What is there to retain the Capital where it is ? But two 
things — the local interests of the people of Washington City, 
and the consideration on the part of the Government of the 
public buildings erected at that place. I have already shown 
that the consideration of the public buildings at that place is an 
item of small consequence to the great and growing interests of 
the Eepublic. The local interests of the people of Washington 
City can have no weight in the matter whatever. It is purely 
a national question, and the representatives of the people must 
alone view it as such. 

It is of no value whatever to New York to have the Capital at 
Washington. James Gordon Bennett, some years ago, declared 
that he would not give the patronage of the washer-women of 
New York for all the Government patronage. So, too, might 
the city of New York say, for she stands above "Washington. 
None of her interests are subservient to Washington ; therefore 
she will be unconcerned about the change, 

Let me repeat again : the change will be made in five rear.", 
and before 1875 the President of the "United States will deliver 
his message at the new seat of government in the Mississippi 
Valley. 



A CHANGE 



OF 



ATIONAL EMPIRE; 



OB 



ARGUMENTS W FAVOR OF THE REMOVAL 



OF THE 



NATIONAL CAPITAL FROM WASHINGTON CITY 



TO THE 



MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

( Illustrated with Maps . ) 



Y L. U. RE AVIS. 



ir St. Louis, the future Capital of the United States, and of the Civilisation 

of the Western Continent— J ames Parton. 

There is the East, and there is India.— Benton. 



ST. LOUIS : 

PUBMSHKD AND FOR SALE BY J. P. TOREEY, BOOK AND SEWS DEALER. 
1869. 



_BMy 



V- 



